With gas prices setting records, one might think the 60 gas industry executives gathered at a resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado, recently were there for a party. Well, no. They had with them another 30 attendees representing commercial, industrial and electric utility customers. The topic? The future for gas and gas supply. The gathering, called the Natural Gas Summit, was sponsored by the Natural Gas Council, a coalition of the American Gas Association, American Petroleum Institute, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA). Richard J. Sharples, president of Anadarko Energy Services and chairman of the NGSA and Natural Gas Council, called the Colorado meeting a first-ever attempt by the industry and its customers to address each other's concerns. Remarks made during the conference call by Lee Gooch, vice president of PCS Nitrogen Fertilizer LP, lent credence to that statement. "We're certainly finding that a lot of the folks in the natural gas industry don't know what the customer wants or what the concerns are." One concern of Gooch and his gas-consuming brethren is the changing character of gas demand, caused by more gas-fired power generation and what that means for supply and prices. Summer is traditionally a time of storage injections in preparation for winter demand. Not so this year. Local distribution companies that have been putting this summer's pricey gas in the ground for winter are now warning customers to expect higher bills this winter. And some fertilizer plants, heavy users of gas, have shut down because high gas costs make their product noncompetitive with fertilizer produced in other countries. To counter some of the upward pressure on gas prices, Gooch said he would like to see the federal government emphasize other energy sources besides gas, as remedies for pollution and global warming. "After all, we only have a finite amount of [gas]." Will the industry face a backlash from consumers over high prices, similar to what has been seen in the gasoline industry? While natural gas prices are important, they're not as politically important as supply reliability, said Gary L. Neale, chairman of the American Gas Association and chief executive of NiSource Inc. "The No. 1 political issue will be reliability, and that is that the gas will be available this winter to heat peoples' homes and no one will be without." -Joe Fisher

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