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the next century or so. There is more than enough natural gas to 



last this country from the present time into the energy era that 



we look for in the not too distant future when the true 



renewables will be the primary sources of energy as opposed to 



the fossil fuels of today. 



What is most important to our region, now, is that natural 



gas needs to be fully utilized as a viable resource in the energy 



planning of the region. To this point, there has been very 



little joint natural gas and electric planning. We have made 



efforts in our industry to work together with the Northwest Power 



Planning Council (NPPC) but, so far, there has been relatively 



little progress except for an occasional meeting to discuss the 



possibilities of the use of natural gas. We have also met 



several times as an industry with the BPA in an effort to 



encourage them to consider natural gas and fuel switching in 



their resource planning but, thus far, there has been no true 



recognition of the direct use of natural gas as a planning 



resource that has come to fruition. 



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