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NATURAL GAS INFRASTRUCTURE

America’s Energy Highway

The existing 2.5-million mile natural gas delivery network provides a back bone for our clean energy future.

Natural gas pipelines play a vital role in delivering energy from producers to homes, businesses, industrial manufacturers, and power plants across the country. This essential infrastructure fuels the systems we rely on daily—from heating and cooking to manufacturing and electricity generation. As an abundant, affordable, and domestically produced energy source, natural gas is a cornerstone of America’s energy portfolio and will continue to support the U.S. economy and energy security for decades. Its infrastructure is indispensable to building a cleaner, more reliable, and cost-effective energy future.

Explore INGAA’s interactive North American pipeline map to see the vast network operated by its members.

Columbia University Study Recognizes the Value of America’s Natural Gas Infrastructure System to Reach Climate Goals Faster

An April 2021 study by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy reported natural gas would be in “continuous use for at least the next 30 years, even in scenarios where the country achieves net-zero targets by mid-century.”

Unlike the significant investment in locating, permitting, and building both the massive generation and transmission infrastructure (from a cost and timing perspective) to electrify the grid and meet aggressive carbon reduction goals, America’s natural gas system is already permitted and built, providing ample opportunity to retrofit, adapt and transform to new technologies.

They argue that greater investment in our natural gas pipeline system can better prepare us to store and deliver the fuels of the future, such as zero-carbon green hydrogen or renewable natural gas (RNG).

Hydrogen: The Zero Carbon Energy of the Future

There is no more abundant element in the universe than hydrogen, but today it is largely used in chemical, agricultural and industrial processing – not as a primary fuel source. Using an electrolyser powered by wind, solar or hydro, “green” hydrogen is produced from splitting hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water – a process that if brought to commercial scale at an affordable rate – could power our future energy needs from home heating to transportation.

A recent Bank of America Securities report found hydrogen could provide up to 24% of America’s energy needs by 2050, and cut emissions by one-third. With those net zero emission goals in mind, new capital is pouring into advancing the technology further. The Biden’s Administration’s Department of Energy is aiming to reduce the cost of green hydrogen by 80% in the next decade, something they called a “game changer” to achieve its decarbonization goals.

In addition to blending green hydrogen to reduce the carbon content of the existing natural gas system, it could provide a realistic alternative to power major industry with zero-carbon fuels, which electrification-only through solar and wind power is unable to support.

Until then, other clean hydrogen technologies exist today that require natural gas as the foundational resource. In fact, 95% of hydrogen produced in the U.S. is derived from natural gas, by splitting hydrogen from methane and capturing the remaining carbon to deliver clean, or “blue” hydrogen, with low carbon intensity.

Blending Renewable Natural Gas Cuts Methane Emissions to Fight Climate Change

Methane is a greenhouse gas that freely escapes into the atmosphere from water treatment plants, landfills, and other sites including farms. Capturing these gases, processing them and blending it with our existing natural gas system can actually have a net positive impact on climate change while continuing to meet our residential and business energy needs with the existing gas system.

The Future is Ours

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