Natural gas has many uses:

• Meets 22 percent of U.S. energy requirements.
• Heats 57 percent of U.S. households.
• Fueled 20 percent of electricity generated in 2006.
• Cools homes and provides fuel for cooking.
• Provides the energy source or raw material to make a wide range of products, such as plastics, steel, glass, synthetic fabrics, fertilizer, aspirin, automobiles and processed food.

The demand for natural gas is growing:

• It is the nation's fastest-growing energy source, with demand forecast to increase by about 22 percent between now and 2030, including a more than 62 percent increase for electric power generation.
• Americans used 22 trillion cubic feet of it in 2005.
• Natural gas supplies about 63 million residential customers and 5 million commercial and industrial customers.
• It powers nearly 150,000 buses, taxis, delivery trucks and other vehicles.

Supply

• Most natural gas used in the United States comes from North America.
• The United States produced 18.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas in 2006.
• U.S. production has been essentially flat for 20 years. Increased imports fill the gap, but there is plenty of natural gas in the U.S. Unfortunately, Congressional policies have put these resources off limits to the American people.

Future resources

• Recent estimates by Minerals Management Service and U.S. Geologic Survey for future undiscovered natural gas resources suggest there is enough to last more than 47 years at current production rates.
• Federal lands contain about 60 percent of the nation's estimated undiscovered natural gas.
• There is enough technically recoverable natural gas in the Rockies alone to power more than 50 million homes for 60 years.
• The Rockies' share of production will grow from 23 percent in 2003 to 29 percent in 2030.

Government policies restricting access and development have placed substantial, new natural gas supplies "off limits.”