{"id":14250,"date":"2013-05-17T11:21:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T16:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=14250"},"modified":"2013-07-18T11:30:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T16:30:30","slug":"the-federal-government-got-oklahoma-hooked-on-coal-now-its-forcing-a-detox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/05\/17\/the-federal-government-got-oklahoma-hooked-on-coal-now-its-forcing-a-detox\/","title":{"rendered":"The Federal Government Got Oklahoma Hooked On Coal, Now It’s Forcing a Detox"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Barney Hillerman Collection \/ Oklahoma Historical Society<\/p>\n

An arial view of the Belle Isle Power Plant in Oklahoma City taken around the time a gas turbine was installed there in 1949.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In a broadcast story last week<\/a>, StateImpact talked about how Oklahoma relies heavily on six major coal-fired power plants and the Wyoming coal that’s needed to run them \u2014 despite sitting on one of the largest supplies of natural gas in the country.<\/p>\n

We wanted to find out what explains this paradox. So we did some research and called some power companies.<\/p>\n

The short answer: It seems the federal government is to blame. The same federal government that is currently forcing some coal plants<\/a>\u00a0to shut down in favor of other energy sources, including, ironically, natural gas.<\/p>\n

It’s a long story, one about the logistics of transporting natural gas, botched government attempts at price-setting, and miscalculations about how much the U.S. has in gas reserves.<\/p>\n

A New Fuel<\/h3>\n

It all started at the beginning 20th century, when natural gas was taking off as a fuel source. Construction started on pipelines to carry the gas, first between cities and towns, and then between states.<\/p>\n

But there weren’t any federal regulations for the interstate transport and sale of natural gas until the 1930s. From the Natural Gas Suppliers Association\u2019s website naturalgas.org<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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…due to concern regarding the monopoly power of interstate pipelines, as well as conglomeration of the industry, the federal government saw fit to step in to fill the regulatory gap created by interstate pipelines.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The government started setting the rates for interstate natural gas delivery in the ’30s. And in the ’50s, it set rates for sales between producers and pipeline companies. But the job became overwhelming for the Federal Power Commission, the agency charged with regulating interstate gas sales (and the precursor to the modern-day Federal Energy Regulatory Commission).<\/p>\n

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“The current thinking was that the U.S. was going to run out of natural gas. So, utilities needed to explore other options for generating electricity.”<\/p>\n

-OG&E spokesman Brian Alford<\/h6>\n

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According to naturalgas.org<\/a>, it was more difficult and took much longer for the FPC to set gas prices than had been anticipated. By 1970, rates had been set for only two of five gas-producing regions of the country. In many areas, prices were stuck at 1959 levels.<\/p>\n

The artificially low prices were good for the consumer, but they gave natural gas producers little incentive to explore new reserves. The price customers paid was kept low, but the cost of drilling for and transporting the gas wasn’t.<\/p>\n

Energy Shortage<\/h3>\n

By the late 1970s, that lack of exploration contributed to the growing fear that the U.S. could soon run out of oil and gas during the energy crisis. At the time the country wasn’t aware of the large supply of natural gas it had, and hydraulic fracturing \u2014 fracking \u2014 hadn’t come far enough to take advantage of it, says Brian Alford, a spokesman for Oklahoma Gas & Electric, the state’s largest electric utility.<\/p>\n

“The current thinking was that the U.S. was going to run out of natural gas. So, utilities needed to explore other options for generating electricity,” Alford says.<\/p>

The conservative National Review<\/em> magazine pointed out in a web post<\/a> from June 2012 that even President Jimmy Carter reinforced the idea that the natural gas was almost gone. In a televised speech in August 1977, Carter advocated for a transition<\/a> away from oil and gas, and toward alternative energy sources \u2014 and coal.<\/p>