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Americans may be surrounded by abundant natural gas, but one CEO says a lack of infrastructure is preventing many households from benefiting from lower commodity prices.
President and CEO of EQT Corporation Toby Z. Rice joined FOX Business’ Cheryl Casone on “Mornings with FOX Business” to discuss permitting reform, natural gas prices and growing energy demand from artificial intelligence and LNG exports.
Rice pointed to the gap between prices in gas-producing regions and what consumers can face in areas with limited pipeline capacity.
“We are seeing natural gas prices continue to be low, but unfortunately, Americans are not seeing that translate to their energy bills,” Rice said.
He said EQT expects to sell natural gas from Appalachia this winter for close to $4, while New England could see prices near $20 in January.
“How can that happen? It’s a sign that we need more infrastructure built,” Rice said. “This is absolutely unacceptable. And the only way to fix this is to get more energy infrastructure built.”
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Rice argued that permitting reform is needed to accelerate the infrastructure required to move energy supplies to consumers.
“Permit reform is long overdue. It needs to happen now,” Rice said. “There’s no better time to act than now, and I will be hopeful always, but I’m waiting for this to happen. And quite frankly, Americans are waiting. The world is waiting.”
Rice said the country has the natural gas resources to respond, but infrastructure remains the hurdle.
“Very simple, let us do our jobs, respond to market forces,” Rice said. “The question is, can we get the infrastructure built in the timeline that we need?”
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Rice also said AI is only part of the projected increase in power demand and noted that the U.S. has retired significant amounts of coal and nuclear generation.
“We’ve shut down in this country over 174 gigawatts of reliable, cost-effective coal facilities and nuclear facilities. That is a major hole we need to backfill, and then get to building [a] new generation to meet the needs of this modern economy,” he said.
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