e Strategic Importance of Shale Gas
Cadet NathaNiel FreelaNd
We have not adequately advanced priorities like education, energy, science and technology, and health care.
We must transform the way we use energy—diversifying supplies….By doing so, we will enhance energy
security, create jobs, and ght climate change.
—2010 U.S. National Security Strategy
Fuel powers the industrial production that strengthens the economy and provides the means to project national
power. Reliable sources of energy are imperative to the security of the United States. Aside from coal, conventional
natural gas deposits have been the most practical and easiest to recover. Approximately 24% of the United States
energy is supplied by natural gas.
1
Broken down by sector, it is a major fuel source for a wide range of industries to
include paper, metals, chemicals and food processing.
2
In addition to its industrial uses, natural gas is used to heat,
cool, and cook in the residential and commercial sectors of the United States.
3
Due to its cleaner-burning properties,
economic availability, and equivalent power to quantity ratio, it has become a favored alternative.
4
In terms of energy
output natural gas provides one and one-third times as much energy as gasoline, which is very important in considering
alternative fuel sources.
5
However, natural gas supply has been overtaken by the demand of the U.S. economy.
Approximately 30% of the global natural gas supply is now traded internationally, mostly within regional markets;
this gure represents an increase from 2005 to 2010.
6
In 2009, the United States imported 3.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf)
of its 24 tcf consumption, most of which was from Canada.
7
While this gure is not alarming, the future geopolitical
implications of an increased need to import natural gas as a result of the widening disparity between domestic supply
and demand causes some concern. e conict with the conventional natural gas supply lies not in the present but
the future. is increased reliance on foreign sources could pose at least two problems for the United States: it would
decrease U.S. energy security; and it could create a “multi-billion dollar outow of U.S. wealth to foreign interests,”
thus, increasing the U.S. balance of payments decit and increasing the power of producing countries.
8
In addition,
there is concern that strong dependence on coal for electricity production causes environmental problems due to the
large amounts of CO
2
emissions that are reduced with natural gas.
1. Natural Gas Facts. About Oil and Natural Gas. American Petroleum Institute at www.api.org/aboutoilgas/natgas/ (accessed 25 June 2011)
2. Ground Water Protection Council. Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer. U.S. Department of Energy Oce of
Fossil Energy. April 2009. 4
3. Ibid 4
4. Ibid 3
5. Muller, Richard. Physics for Future Presidents: e Science Behind the Headlines. (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008), 69.
6. Ratner, Michael, Global Natural Gas: A Growing Resource. Congressional Research Service. 22 December 2010. www.crs.gov (accessed 23
June 2011), 7.
7. Ratner, Michael, Global Natural Gas: A Growing Resource. Congressional Research Service. 22 December 2010. www.crs.gov (accessed 23
June 2011), 18.
8. Ground Water Protection Council. Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer. U.S. Department of Energy Oce of
Fossil Energy. April 2009. 4
Cadet Freeland is in his senior year at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York
CSL
CSL
C ENTER for
STRATEGIC
LEADERSHIP
Issue Paper
Center for Strategic Leadership,
U.S. Army War College
Volume 16-11, August 2011
