Natural gas is, in many ways, the ideal fossil fuel. It is clean, easy to transport, and convenient to use.- U.S. Department of Energy

One way to prevent an oil supply disruption is to ensure our domestic production of oil is maintained.  Remaining U.S. oil fields are becoming increasingly costly to produce because much of the easy-to-find oil has already been recovered. – U.S. Department of Energy

The United States has three times the amount of natural gas it thought it had in 1966 — and 40 percent more than just a few years ago. In fact, more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is estimated to be available; at present consumption levels, that’s enough to heat all U.S. households for the next 519 years.

General Electric has won a $1.4 billion contract to build wind turbines for a wind energy generation operation in Oregon. The operation will consist of 338 turbines, for installation in 2011 and 2012, at Oregon’s Shepherds Flat generations station, making it the largest wind farm in the nation. The station will have an 845 megawatt capacity, and can supply 230,000 homes.

America is experiencing a natural gas revolution. Prices are 33 percent lower than they were last year, and the industry is producing significantly more gas, thanks to technology that has uncovered enormous new supplies of natural gas. - Senators Mary Landrieu and Saxby Chambliss

Natural gas has a high ignition temperature, about 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with about 600 degrees Fahrenheit for gasoline. It also has a narrow range of flammability, that is, in concentrations in air below about 5 percent and above about 15 percent, natural gas will not burn. The high ignition temperature and limited flammability range make accidental ignition or combustion of natural gas unlikely.

As winter begins, the price of natural gas is about a third of the level it was 14 months ago. Storage facilities are bursting.

A new study funded by the Department of Energy and released this week, found no appreciable impact on the home values of some 7,500 properties in close proximity to turbines. “There’s simply no evidence that those homes have been negatively impacted by the presence of a wind facility,” said Ryan Wiser, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and co-author of the study.

Compressed natural gas bus life-cycle costs are at least 45 percent lower than diesels or hybrids because they are more economical to purchase, fuel, and maintain.

During complete combustion of natural gas, only carbon dioxide, essential for plant life, and water are produced as byproducts.

The United States is the world’s second largest wind energy producer after Germany.

New Jersey Clean Cities Coalition’s New Jersey Compressed Natural Gas Refuse Trucks, Shuttle Buses and Infrastructure project will deploy 277 heavy-duty natural gas garbage trucks and shuttle buses and four new CNG fueling stations throughout Newark, Camden, Trenton, Atlantic City, and Egg Harbor Township.  The initiative also includes projects to educate the public about the benefits of using clean burning, domestically produced natural gas in vehicles.  DOE estimates that the project will help displace 1.8 million gallons of petroleum annually.

Wind is the fastest-growing renewable power source in the U.S. “Wind farms” provide electricity to seven million households in 35 states, and use of wind power grows by more than 40% every year. The U.S. wind energy industry installed 8,503 megawatts (MW) in 2008. Currently, wind power provides about 2% of our nation’s electricity; experts estimate that wind energy could provide as much as 20% of our nation’s electricity.

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR® CFL bulb, we would save almost six billion kWh per year—enough energy to light nearly three million homes. We’d also save more than $600 million in annual energy costs and reduce greenhouse gases by the equivalent of nearly 750,000 cars. The average CFL lasts 10,000 hours, and when you replace it, you can recycle it!

“We have about twice as much (natural gas) energy in the continental United States than all the oil reserves in Saudi Arabia.” T Boone Pickens, Naples Daily News, November 2, 2009