Economides: Texas Lost $7.7 Billion By Not Using Natural Gas To Keep Lights On
Dr. Michael Economides, author, CNBC regular and University of Houston professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, says Texas lost out on some $7.7 billion between 2005 and 2011 primarily because we didn't use natural gas for electricity.
Economides, it should be noted, is a vocal industry supporter and testified before Congress last year, criticizing the EPA's approach to its sweeping (and pending) study of hydraulic fracturing in America. So his position in the report released this morning isn't all that surprising. But it's still pretty interesting.
We know that the natural gas industry is in a slump, due in no small part to the fact that it glutted the market, a victim of its own success. As a result, big players like Chesapeake have diverted rigs in the Barnett Shale to pursue oil. According to this report, if power plants were using natural gas, we wouldn't miss out on the dough paid for the exploration, drilling, production, treatment and transportation of it in Texas. Nor would we lose royalties, severance taxes, sales taxes and local property taxes that accompany natural gas production. Economides also cites "leasehold improvements (such as roads)," but we wonder how much that's offset by the utter pulverization of county roads by, say, saltwater trucks ferrying production water?
The report says natural gas use for power generation has remained flat and even fallen off a little, while nationally its use is characterized by an upward trend. If we'd kept pace, Economides reasons, we would have burned through an additional trillion cubic feet of Texas-produced natural gas. And that, he says, would be money in our pockets.
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/03/economides_texas_lost_77_billi.php
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