Recent developments in the technology to economically recover natural gas from shale rock formations have taken some of the urgency away from clean coal and nuclear power This represents an exciting opportunity for AEP and much of the energy industry. If domestic shale gas can be safely, environmentally and economically tapped, stored and delivered, it will stabilize energy costs, increase reliability and enhance America’s energy independence.

Furthermore, since natural gas also emits less carbon dioxide per unit of electricity produced than oil and coal, moving to natural gas will give the nation more time to develop other sources of clean energy while combating climate change. Natural gas generation facilities generally can be sited and built much more quickly, less expensively and with much less risk than coal or nuclear plants.

AEP has been steadily increasing its gas generation capacity. Since 2005, we have added 4,181 MW of nominal natural gas capacity to our system, and we expect natural gas to account for about 29 percent of our generating capacity by 2020 versus 23 percent today.