Laying the groundwork for natural gas policy – Andreas Thanos

Andreas Thanos, a gas policy specialist at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and advisory council member of the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), speaks to Energy.Media about the impact that natural gas is having all over the globe, both in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and in propelling the development of new trading, pricing, and regulatory structures. Andreas also discusses some of the steps taken to create competitive gas markets in the United States and talks about his own data-driven approach to policy analysis.

In this episode, Andreas talks about several of the ways that gas has affected the world energy industry and offers his own perspective on renewable energy:

• Gas – more specifically, the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques to raise production from domestic unconventional gas reserves – has allowed the United States to make substantial reductions in CO2 emissions while also becoming a net exporter of energy.
• For many other countries around the world, gas is attractive not just because it is a cleaner-burning alternative to coal and petroleum products but also because it is not subject to OPEC pricing mechanisms.
• The United States has, after some initial missteps, developed competitive domestic gas markets and is not following the exact same path as the European Union.