In early August 2023, Chattanooga Gas announced an agreement with Williams’ Sequent Energy Management to ensure that 100% of its natural gas supply for residential and small business customers is procured, transported or delivered by companies that are reducing their methane emissions.
It’s something Chattanooga Gas officials say is critical to helping achieve a sustainable, affordable energy future while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Our Next Generation Natural Gas supply is certified to be provided with lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional natural gas supply,” Pedro Cherry, president and CEO of Chattanooga Gas, said in a news release. “Our customers can feel good knowing we have strong relationships with environmentally conscious suppliers focused on reducing methane emissions efficiently and effectively during the production cycle.”
The Next Generation Natural Gas, also known as certified lowemissions natural gas, will allow Chattanooga Gas to support an estimated annual emissions reduction savings of approximately 646 tons of methane or 16,152 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is roughly the same as removing the emissions from more than 3,500 gas-fueled cars in a year.
“This milestone not only has important implications for Chattanooga Gas, but also for the broader natural gas industry,” Joanne Mello, vice president of corporate sustainability with Southern Company Gas, told American Gas. “By working together across the energy value chain—from wellhead to burner tip—we can confidently offer our customers and communities a sustainable product that is supporting emissions reductions.”
In addition, Chattanooga Gas and its parent company, Southern Company Gas, share a goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 2050.
The Sequent announcement comes in the wake of Tennessee’s Natural Gas Innovation Act, which enables natural gas utilities to pursue cleaner energy options and allows incremental gas costs to be reflected in the utility’s purchased gas adjustment, while the total incremental costs cannot exceed 3% of the total annual cost of gas.
“Chattanooga Gas could not have done this transaction without the legislative support to create the proper regulatory environment,” Mello said. “That legislation enables natural gas utilities like ours to procure innovative natural gas resources like farm gas, biogas, renewable natural gas attributes, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and offsets.”
According to Mello, Chattanooga Gas is not the only utility owned by Southern Company Gas to engage in such sustainability efforts. In 2019, Virginia Natural Gas began procuring Next Generation Natural Gas, while Illinois-based Nicor Gas has also sourced from environmentally conscious suppliers.