The Congressional Research Service recently issued a report on the impact natural gas is having, and might have in the future, on the U.S. economy. Regarding future possibilities: "If natural gas were able to replace oil and coal in the fuel mix, it would require almost 77 tcf of natural gas per year; approximately tripling current U.S. consumption and production (see Figure 10). At that rate, even the current estimated resource base of 1,809 tcf would be exhausted in about 23 years. The amount of investment that would be required to undertake this change would be enormous, probably in the trillions of dollars, and new technologies and infrastructure would be needed to make the changes economical and practical, particularly in the transportation sector for natural gas vehicles." (Emphasis is ours.)
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