Posts from Jane Michalek

As North American supplies of natural gas continue to grow, more industrial, commercial, institutional and residential customers who do not burn natural gas for heating or process use want to participate in the economic savings associated with natural gas versus alternate fuels such as heating oil or propane. Complications in the process of installing pipeline infrastructure are slowing the rollout of direct gas line service. Today we describe natural gas distribution alternatives.

While most of the country is enjoying the benefits that low cost North American supplies of natural gas bring to local and regional economies, many parts of the Northeast US and Atlantic Canada are still heavily reliant on expensive oil-based products for residential, commercial and industrial use. That is in spite of the proximity of burgeoning supplies of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale basins. The challenge in converting users away from oil lies in infrastructure build out and deciding who will pay. Today we begin a two part series on the slow conversion process and new solutions to supply natural gas to customers before pipeline infrastructure is built.