Nearly 250 leaders in business, academia, law, engineering, government and beyond attended the Third Annual Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference, held in downtown Pittsburgh at the Omni William Penn Hotel this week.

The summit, in its third year, is jointly hosted by America’s Natural Gas Alliance, the Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research and the Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center .

“ANGA is excited to co-host this year’s conference and include it as part of our ‘Think About Energy Summit Series,’” said ANGA’s Erica Bowman, vice president of research and policy analysis. “Every American is seeing the benefits of our natural gas abundance. With so many other costs rising, affordable natural gas is helping ease the impact on household budgets. And greater use of clean-burning natural gas in our transportation, electric generation and industrial sectors means even more jobs and cleaner air.”

One highlight from the conference was the release of a study by Bentek Energy that shows that Pennsylvania and Ohio do have healthy natural gas infrastructure. Other conference topics include international demand opportunities, the role of natural gas in power generation and industrial applications, natural gas vehicle refueling infrastructure, and natural gas’ contribution to a growing manufacturing sector.

“The Appalachian region - and Pennsylvania in particular - sits atop one of the largest energy fields in the world. Our reserves have had, and continue to have, international ramifications. After several years of facilitating a dialogue around natural gas development, the Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research is now helping address the question of how we take advantage of all this energy. That question is exactly what this year’s Utilization Conference answers,” Tom Murphy, co-director of MCOR said.

“What we are hearing today and what we see across Pennsylvania is a true American success story,” Bill Hall, director of SGICC said. “Thanks to affordable and abundant natural gas, more and more entrepreneurs are building businesses, and existing businesses have new opportunities. Schools can invest more into their students, local governments can focus on core services and businesses large and small can invest more, all thanks to the increased use of this domestic fuel.”

The conference included a natural gas vehicle display in downtown Pittsburgh’s Market Square.

For more information, visit the Penn State Natural Gas Utilization Conference website.

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