By Art Mass

Last month we reported on how the natural gas industry failed to have a seat at the table when the energy-climate bill was fashioned in the House of Representatives. Its absence hurt, as the 1,428-page bill provides something for every key industry — coal, utilities, autos, wind and solar — but zip for natural gas.

 ”The natural-gas industry was done in by its own complacency,” Keith Rattie, chief executive of Salt Lake City-based natural-gas producer Questar Inc., told the Denver Post.

Now the industry is hoping it doesn’t find itself on the outside looking  in once again as the Senate debates its version of the bill. It has stockpiled an estimated an $80 million war chest for lobbying efforts and formed a new organization, the Natural Gas Alliance, to help fill the lobbying void in Washington. It is also receiving support from Colorado’s Democratic Senators, Mark Udall and Michael Bennett. The former has been meeting with members of Colorado’s natural gas industry during the last several months. “It’s clear there is an important role for natural gas in any clean-energy legislation,” Udall said. For his part, Bennett says that adding natural-gas provisions would be “an essential part” for his support of the bill.

While major natural gas players such EnCana, Anadarko and Williams have been pro active in their relationships with the State and other stakeholders here in Colorado, the same cannot be said for the natural gas industry as a whole on the national public policy stage. Part of the reason could be because the “industry” is not so much an industry as a group of business segments dealing with natural gas from different perspectives. There are the producers — mostly independents — who pull the substance out of the ground, the pipeline companies transporting it,  and the utilities selling it. No one voice speaks for all the segments. The newly formed Natural Gas Alliance is hoping to change that, of course.

The  House bill directed huge dollar amounts for clean-coal technology, financial incentives for electric car development and a national renewable-energy standard that would boost demand for wind and solar power, the only program for natural gas is a study on the effectiveness of CNG as a transportation fuel — clear evidence that the industry is not well connected with House and Senate Democratic power brokers. Indeed, no legislator on the House side spoke up for the industry, according to a congressional source.

All that said, the role of natural gas in the country’s near term energy future (10-15 years) could become much more important. For one thing, new drilling technologies have provided access to vast reserves in places like the Bakken Field, Piceance Basin and Haynesfield. These have helped grow the NG supply by 38% since 2006.

Combine that with the newly minted lobbying effort about to get underway and the upside for the gas industry looks bright, despite the current low commodity prices — if it succeeds in directly benefiting from the final version of the energy bill. The alliance says it is currently strategizing with it members — 26 of the country’s biggest natural gas producers– in order to make sure the legislative outcome is beneficial.

During his speech before members of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association last month in Denver, former Colorado Sen. Tim Wirth, a longtime supporter of the industry, lambasted it for failing to participate in the shaping of the House energy bill. Still, the opportunity to get natural gas in the final energy legislation is “important for the environment and our energy security,” he said.

Can the industry gear up enough to influence and deliver votes of support in the Senate-version of the energy legislation? That is the key question still to be answered. Supporters say natural gas should have a bigger role because it is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel and because of huge supplies right here in the U.S., is clearly the logical bridge fuel until renewables achieve critical mass as baseload generators.

If natural gas can deliver votes, “it becomes a player,” Wirth said to the Denver Post.