I've long been a vocal advocate for nuclear power for electricity generation, and I'm still convinced that nuclear power is a major part of the United States' future energy portfolio, especially where the big, electricity-hungry data centers that support the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) are concerned; one small modular reactor per data center may well be the future of these installations.
For most applications, though, natural gas is the big upcoming thing, and it's set to surpass petroleum and coal as the primary sources of energy. And here's the the thing: The United States has a lot of natural gas. A lot of it.
For 75 years, petroleum has been the energy source that has powered the U.S. more than any other. That’s about to change.
By the end of the decade, natural gas likely will surpass oil for the first time after the gap all but disappeared in 2025. This seismic shift will end a chapter that began in 1950, when petroleum ended the longstanding reign of another fossil fuel: coal.
“I say we probably cross that threshold within the next couple years, and by 2030, we will have a big lead on petroleum,” Toby Rice, CEO of top U.S. gas producer EQT Corp., said in an interview.
The transition from America being a nation powered by oil to one running primarily on gas shows how much the economics of cheap gas has reordered parts of the energy sector and pushed out competing fuel sources.
We have vast reserves of natural gas, and improving technologies, like fracking and horizontal drilling, are opening up a wealth of new recoverable reserves, not the least of which are found right here in Alaska. These reserves, and our increasing development of them, have made the United States a net energy exporter, driven mostly by natural gas.
The rise of wind and solar as significant contributors to U.S. electricity generation has also aided the development of gas-fired power plants, as gas facilities can ramp up and down more rapidly than coal and nuclear generators when intermittent renewable power drops.
Notably, the positioning of gas as a top U.S. energy source doesn’t account for the explosive growth of U.S. liquefied natural gas. The U.S. is already the world’s largest exporter of LNG, and shipments are set to roughly double by the end of the decade. Shell predicts U.S. feedgas for LNG plants will make up 23% of total U.S. gas production by 2035, according to its annual LNG outlook.
This is a good and comforting place for the United States to be in.
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Alaska LNG Pipeline Showdown: Gov. Dunleavy Rejects Senate Amendments, Calls New Special Session
The transition won't be without its own hurdles. The Alaska state legislature is, as of this writing, still debating the state's role in the financing and tax profile of the proposed Alaska natural gas pipeline, which will deliver bulk natural gas from the North Slope to the Kenai Peninsula for export. There will be more political battles over pipelines and facilities. But natural gas makes a great deal of sense; it's clean, it's abundant, and it's cheap. Unlike "green" energy sources, it is a high-density energy source. Unlike solar and wind power, natural gas is reliable and constant. Gas-fired power plants can quickly scale up and down to meet demand. No "green" source can do that.
I still believe nuclear power to be an essential and growing part of America's energy profile, and if that magical "30-50 years from now" barrier can ever be breached and workable grid-scale fusion power can be had, that will be the greatest game-changer in energy to date - but on that one, you can color me skeptical.
For now, natural gas is the next big thing, and it doesn't look as though that will change anytime soon.
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/07/06/us-energy-revolution-natural-gas-now-set-to-lead-over-petroleum-n2204038
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