Author J. Winston Porter recently penned a column in the Corpus Christi Caller Times discussing the importance of our country’s new role as the world’s largest natural gas producer.

Porter — an expert on environmental policy issues — explains how a vast and inexpensive supply of natural gas is reshaping how we generate electricity and attracting billions of dollars in manufacturing investment.

“For all of the attention paid to the resurgent U.S. oil production, it’s our natural gas resources that may be more important,” he writes.

“Consider that in the near blink of an eye natural gas has overtaken coal as the country’s largest fuel for electricity generation. Coal generated more than 50 percent of U.S. power just a decade ago. Today, it produces just a third of our electricity and is poised to fall further. Since natural gas produces just half the carbon emissions when used to generate electricity, this shift from coal to gas has been a boon to our emissions-reduction efforts. No country is reducing carbon emissions faster than the U.S.”

Read the full article.