Robert A. Hefner discusses his new book, The Grand Energy Transition.

“Energy policy is religion, not science,” declared Herman Franssen, former chief economist of the International Energy Agency and current president of International Energy Associates. In an Aspen Strategy Group roundtable discussion with Robert A. Hefner, author of The Grand Energy Transition, participants examined the potential for natural gas to solve substantial security and climate-change threats both in the United States and globally.

“We’ve got as much attainable gas as we have mine-able coal in the United States,” said Hefner as he delineated the benefits to a natural-gas energy system: the existing infrastucture would be compatible with natural gas, which would save billions of dollars; we would be able to buy one million fewer barrels of oil every day, saving billions and reducing our dependence on foreign oil; we’d be able to increase the number of jobs in the energy sector and truly give the nation a stimulus; and, in five years, we could have half the US fleet of cars running on natural gas. Looking at US environmental goals, Hefner said, “We could solve—within five years, not twenty years—a big, big part of this problem.” Throw in trillions of dollars in savings and a strengthened US security position and, in short, according to Hefner, natural gas is “everything we need.”

So what’s the problem? Partly, it’s psychological. When the Fuel Use Act passed in 1978 as a reaction to the oil crisis of the mid-’70s, its effect was to promote coal use in the United States. Falling demand for natural gas in the wake of the Fuel Use Act created the impression among most Americans that we simply had no substantial amounts of natural gas. Add to that a highly sophisticated coal lobby and natural gas ceased to matter. “It’s hard to stop coal when there’s eighty senators asking for coal, said Hefner, who called for a grassroots voice for natural gas. Hefner is hopeful, however: “It’s helpful that we have a real scientist as the secretary of energy.”