If it's to be a slap fight, then bring it on. We may have an entertaining season to look forward to.
Natural gas: It's the bridge fuel. No, it's crack cocaine. And now it's the fuel that's a bit "bitchy." That is what Exelon chief John Rowe felt comfortable enough to say this week, when state utility regulators had their annual meeting in the company's home city, Chicago.
Rowe covered a good deal of ground Monday speaking to the crowd turned out for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners meeting. On the natural gas front, he allowed as how gas has a role to play in the road to a low-carbon future. Right now it's low-cost, but the price will rise, he said, helping to give nuclear if not a renaissance, then "at least a new spring."
But Rowe titillated the audience when he described gas as a bit "bitchy" in its price behavior. An incorrect thing to say, doubtless, but he may be protected (or not?) by Exelon's having a strong record of strong women in important positions.
His characterization of natural gas is welcome, though, for anyone looking for some more zest in what seems to be a serious battle about how much to depend on the fuel. Before Rowe's remark, the best we had was Duke's Jim Rogers calling gas the "crack cocaine" of the power industry. That was getting a little old.
Gas interests keep pushing very hard to be written into a concrete role in energy/climate legislation. Perhaps the best of them (or maybe he's just having the most fun) is Aubrey McClendon at Chesapeake Energy. Quite the battler against dirty coal, he told the HIS Herold energy conference in Connecticut this fall that Chesapeake could demonstrate the cleanliness of natural gas by buying a coal mine and drilling a gas well next to it. Let people compare, he said. Asked after his talk if he was serious, McClendon's eye's twinkled. "I don't know," he grinned. "Am I? Pretty good idea, though."
Bring it on.
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