Our Perspective on Climate Change

We have committed to our stakeholders to be responsible environmental stewards while striving to help meet North America’s increasing demand for natural gas. For us, that means working to reduce our own carbon footprint and taking a lead role in helping our customers manage energy responsibly. At its simplest, our role is to:

  • Develop infrastructure to facilitate the use of natural gas as a clean energy source;
  • Operate our facilities safely, reliably and efficiently;
  • Enhance the energy services we provide to our customers that increase efficiency and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions (like carbon capture and sequestration and demand side management); and
  • Take an active and constructive role in climate change policy development in the U.S. and Canada including our participation in industry groups, governmental and non-governmental partnerships.

Our Position on Climate Change Policy and Regulation

We prefer a federal, economy-wide, market-driven climate change program over an assortment of state, provincial and regional measures.

As natural gas is significantly less carbon intensive than other fossil fuels, it is a critical part of the solution to providing the energy our economies require now and in the future. An effective climate change program should recognize the positive role of natural gas in a carbon-constrained economy as a reliable, abundant and cleaner alternative to other fuels. Such a program should allow for the likelihood that those companies helping to meet growing demand by producing, processing and transporting more natural gas may increase their direct emissions while serving to reduce overall regional and national emissions, thereby providing a net benefit to the environment.

At a federal level, market-based incentives should advance emissions reductions on many fronts, including encouraging increased efficiency, technological innovation and energy conservation. We believe that a workable federal climate change program should:

  • Implement programs and requirements gradually and in conjunction with existing energy regulatory frameworks to avoid undue economic dislocations, leakage or industry movement to unregulated regions;
  • Utilize existing, established and approved greenhouse gas quantification and reporting methodologies, particularly those accepted in current mandatory government reporting;
  • Utilize the point of combustion as the point of regulation for major emission sources in the natural gas sector and incorporate efficiency standards and incentives for smaller sources of emissions, such as residential and commercial users;
  • Provide certainty about costs of compliance, either through a cap-and-trade system with a price cap on allowance prices or through a carbon tax;
  • Recognize and reward voluntary industry actions to reduce emissions with credits for early reductions;
  • Recognize offsets – as long as they are real, quantified, verified, surplus and have clear ownership – as an important tool to encourage lower cost emission reductions;
  • Support development of carbon capture and storage projects and provide incentives, such as bonus allowances under a cap-and-trade scheme; and
  • Support development of a variety of technologies to increase efficiency of end-use consumption.