Natural gas remains an important fuel to power the electric grid even as developers and grid operators embrace diverse solutions to feed rising energy demand while reducing carbon emissions. A recent report highlights challenges to natural gas reliability for members of Congress.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS), the policy research arm of the United States Congress, recently released a significant new report on natural gas reliability. The report notes the strong growth of U.S. natural gas production, which exceeded 41 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 2023—making the United States the world’s largest producer.
But this ample national supply masks growing local challenges and infrastructure shortages that can make accessing that gas to power the grid and heat homes increasingly difficult.
The report notes recent supply emergencies in New York, Rhode Island, and Texas that have highlighted growing threats from infrastructure constraints, misaligned policies, severe weather, and malicious actors. Meanwhile, the report forecasts gas demand rising even higher as renewable energy generation grows and requires more gas as a critical dispatchable backup to intermittent resources.
Top Challenges to Natural Gas Reliability
CRS documented around a dozen challenges to natural gas reliability—many of which have been longstanding Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) priorities.
Particularly pressing factors include:
- Gas-Electric Interdependency & Market Misalignment
Over the past two decades, natural gas has become the largest share of fuel source for electricity generation in the U.S. Natural gas provides dispatchable, cost-effective, low-emission electricity and plays a critical role in power generation across nearly every U.S. region. Historically, however, household and industrial customers were the largest users of natural gas, and in response the natural gas market is structured to serve those types of loads. This has created issues of misalignment between gas suppliers and power generators. Natural gas generators are now the largest end-user of natural gas pipelines, and market misalignment has sometimes made it challenging for power plants to access sufficient gas supplies during high-demand times like extreme weather, especially given scarce pipeline infrastructure in some areas of the country.
In a groundbreaking consensus document, EPSA, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, and the Natural Gas Supply Association recently joined together to offer potential approaches to solving these issues.
- Constrained Natural Gas Infrastructure
Federal and state policies, litigation, and local opposition have made it increasingly difficult to build the pipeline infrastructure that our natural gas system relies on. The CRS report identifies these infrastructure issues as a serious threat to reliability. Regions like New England and states like New York face rising natural gas demand, but stable or dwindling pipeline capacity. A lack of pipelines means these states cannot access sufficient gas, even though nearby states like Pennsylvania are large producers. An adversarial permitting landscape has made it increasingly difficult for energy infrastructure in places like these to gain the required approvals.
The report research cited former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman James Danly, who testified in 2024 that “the solution, of course is to remove the obstacles, primarily regulatory, to further expansion of the pipeline system.”
Meaningful permitting reform will be vital in order to streamline the permitting process and reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens—something EPSA has continued to advocate for.
- Cybersecurity and Physical Security Threats
Threats, both cyber and physical, have become more frequent on critical infrastructure like natural gas pipelines. The report explains, “Federal security officials and industry analysts have long identified pipelines in the United States as potential targets for intentional disruption of physical or cyber systems.”
In a National Security Awareness Month post, Bill Zuretti, director of regulatory affairs and counsel for EPSA, broke down how cyber and physical threats pose an ongoing challenge to grid reliability.
- Increased Electric Generation from Wind and Solar
Because renewable generation is intermittent and weather-dependent, grid operators require dispatchable resources like natural gas in order to meet demand when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. The rapid growth in deployment of intermittent resources means more gas generation is needed to serve as a dispatchable backup quickly and at large scale.
The future grid needs both renewable and dispatchable power, and additional measures must be taken to ensure natural gas remains available when needed.
- Climate Change Impacts & Extreme Weather
Climate change and extreme weather also create challenges for natural gas reliability. The CRS report cites weather events such as the 2011 Southwest Arctic Storm, Winter Storm Uri, and Hurricane Ida. As climate change continues to increases the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, understanding how to maintain natural gas and electric systems reliability during these events will remain a priority.
EPSA and our members continue to monitor and learn from instances of extreme weather.
The Bottom Line: Natural Gas Reliability Is Key
The CRS report puts the challenge ahead plainly saying, “The U.S. natural gas system is currently essential to the U.S. economy, providing critical energy supplies for heating, industrial processes, and electric power generation.”
A strong natural gas system is an irreplaceable part of a strong energy system. Realistic policies grounded in the technical realties of the power system we have today are the only way we can continue to provide the reliable, cost-effective energy that Americans rely on.
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