Testimony: Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources

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Let's remember that we are facing a U.S. natural gas demand increase of more than 30% by the year 2010, according to the 1999 natural gas study of the National Petroleum Council that was requested by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The last study of this type was conducted in 1992 and, as is shown here, the growth in demand for this clean-burning fuel was underestimated. It is still early to predict, but it is very possible that once again demand projections are conservative. There are recent indications that natural gas demand could be even stronger than the latest NPC projections.