Haynesville, a new documentary by Austin-based filmmaker Gregory Kallenberg, explores the lives of three individuals who find themselves on top of an enormous reserve of natural gas wealth, and at the center of a conversation about the future of energy in America.
Natural gas is often described by energy forecasters as the ‘fuel of the 21st century’. Its high hydrogen to carbon ratio makes it a perfect ‘clean’ fuel that is equally suited as a feedstock for plastics and other industrial products. Yet it does not get a lot of love or attention. Maybe because it’s largely misunderstood and has no real home! It cannot escape its ancient biomass origins and will always be associated with coal and oil. Yet it is rich in hydrogen (low in carbon) and much closer to ‘clean’ sources like solar or wind. This makes natural gas hard to pin down, but also the perfect transition fuel between these two eras of energy production!
Natural gas is back, and Haynesville could be the first story to tell its tale!
Natural gas was the fuel of choice for power plants built in the 1990s, but the industry stumbled as North American production of conventional resources seemed to plateau before producers could figure out an economical way to ship natural gas from the Middle East in the form of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). Adding to its pain, the opening of the Western US coal reserves made it difficult for natural gas to compete.
But methane appears to be back! And new natural gas extraction techniques from shale rock formations like the Barnett Shale reserve in Texas coupled with the costs of carbon pricing schemes that favor hydrogen rich fuels (like natural gas) and continued challenge of peak production of conventional oil, natural gas might actually live up to its hype as a major fuel of the next century.
Of course, it is not without problems. Natural gas is at the center of geopolitical disputes between Russia and Europe. It is the key resource reserve for the Middle East and will likely replace oil as the target for ‘energy independence’ rhetoric.
Natural gas is also the key leverage point for the future of coal, solar and wind energy. Why? Because natural gas is a primary fuel for electrical power generation and can also be used as a transportation fuel for combustion engines or as a hydrogen-rich fuel for fuel cell electric vehicles. And while many environmental purists tend to dismiss natural gas because it is still a ‘fossil fuel’, the likelihood of a future shaped by cheap natural gas could limit the growth of solar and wind!
Despite the constant buzz within the media and blogosphere that describes solar and wind as ‘oil alternatives’, the truth is that renewables compete with natural gas and coal. They are not substitutes for oil. We cannot put electrons inside a gas tank unless we convert that renewable electricity into a chemical fuel such as hydrogen. And the conversation in the US about natural gas derived from shale deposits is only just about to get started!
But I digress!
This is the beginning of the conversation! Natural gas is back. It may indeed play a role as cleaner transition fuel as we develop the age of pure renewable resources. But first, we need to understand the story from the lens of people, politics and business.
Keep your eye on Haynesville!
