Atmos chief full of gas — and some myth

Robert Best, president and CEO of Atmos Energy, the nation’s largest gas-only utility company, spoke to the Best Southwest Chamber of Commerce — an umbrella group of south suburban Dallas chambers of commerce — at its quarterly luncheon today.

Much of Best’s talk was based on what he called the “eight myths” of natural gas.

On some of the myths he was totally true, or nearly so, that they are indeed myths. On some, he was partially true. And on one, he was mythmaking himself.

Let’s take that last one first.

Best said offshore wells don’t leak. Of course, as the Congressional GOP pushes to open up more offshore oil and gas drilling, this is a pet claim.

Fact? I don’t know about gas wells, but yes, oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico do leak under storm conditions. They did during Katrina, and Ike is going to give us another test.

Best was true on liquid natural gas not being a serious part of the answer, though he fudged when he said we have “60 years of gas” here without talking about Peak Natural Gas. He was also true on clean coal not being so clean.

He was semi-true on conservation and alternative fuels not being significant parts of our power answer. That’s based in part on how you define “significant.”

Also, given that nobody who gets gas heat is likely to modify their house to have electric heat, why he needed to fudge the alternative energy supply issue, I don’t know.

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