UW Professor Speaks Before Congressional Natural Gas Caucus

September 14, 2010

Timothy Considine was battling traffic in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday morning and looking forward to arriving at the airport.

"It'll be good to be back in Wyoming," he says with a chuckle.

But Considine was hardly complaining. His trip to the nation's capitol was worth it.

A professor of energy economics in the University of Wyoming's School of Energy Resources, Considine spoke for about 30 minutes Monday to the Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, focusing on the positive employment impacts associated with natural gas production and stressing the unique benefits of shale production.

Considine was one of two speakers to appear before the caucus, a bipartisan group of members dedicated to championing the use of domestic natural gas. He also detailed his latest study, "The Economic Impacts of the Marcellus Shale: Implications for New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia," a July report to the American Petroleum Institute (API).

"It was a good time," he says. "I also had about four or five people come up to me afterward, from trade publications and industry groups to ask follow-up questions."

In his API study, Considine contends that the Marcellus Shale natural gas deposit, which stretches from the mountains of Appalachia in West Virginia to upstate New York, contains an "enormous reserve" of natural gas valued at more than two trillion dollars at current prices.

In the executive summary, Considine writes, "So within a couple hundred miles of the Washington-New York corridor with a significant population and demand for energy lays a super giant natural gas field of Middle East proportions."

Joseph Mason, chair of banking at the Ourso School of Business at Louisiana State University and a senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, also spoke to caucus members.

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