SB, I am bullish on natural gas assuming the coal interests in congress can be kept at bay by the administration in Washington. The only issue is we may have sub $8/MMBtu natural gas prices for some time.
When the royalty owner is receiving $3.50 or less for his/her gas, $7-8 would seem like an explosion to the upside to me and I would be extremely satisfied with that price. I see LNG as the primary risk rather than coal.
SB, in the near term (thru 2010) I agree LNG will keep prices depressed. After that date improvements the Asian & European economies should lessen the LNG supply issue.
Longer term natural gas has to expand its share of the power gen market in order to increase demand. This means taking on the coal states in Washington.
PG, most of the bigger programs don't kick in until after 2024 when the auction dollars will start being available. Prior to that date there is some fairly limited costs related to research programs.