Infrastructure Matters: Customers Need Energy Now, and the Pacific Northwest Can’t Wait for the Next Cold Snap to Invest in Natural Gas Delivery

When temperatures plunge, energy policy becomes personal. Families need heat. Businesses need dependable service. Electric utilities need resources that can respond when demand rises and other supplies fall short. Customers need that energy now, and the region cannot keep declining to invest in natural gas infrastructure while the energy transition unfolds.

The Pacific Northwest is in a new and increasingly complex era of energy demand. Reliability, affordability and sustainability all matter, but delivering any of them starts with serving customers today: how much energy they need, where it comes from, how much it costs, and whether the infrastructure can deliver it when conditions are toughest.

Our position is straightforward: infrastructure matters, and continuing to defer investment in natural gas delivery puts customers’ reliability and affordability at risk.

Abundant supply still needs a path to customers

The Northwest Gas Association’s 2026 Pacific Northwest Gas Market Outlook describes a region with access to abundant natural gas resources in Western Canada and the U.S. Rockies, enough to support regional demand for over 100 years at current consumption levels. But reserves underground cannot warm a home or fuel a power plant without a functioning delivery network. Pipelines transport energy across long distances, compressors keep it moving, and storage provides flexibility as demand changes. This network has operated safely and reliably, and customers depend on it today.

The critical question is whether that network can deliver enough energy during sustained winter peaks. Supply abundance and delivery capacity are different measures. Sound planning must account for both.

Winter leaves little room for error

The figures outlined in the Outlook show how hard the system already works: major pipelines currently average above 90% of capacity during winter, and storage provides up to 40 percent of the region’s gas energy on the coldest days.

With major pipelines and storage already pushing the limits of their capacity in winter, there is little spare room to absorb a prolonged cold snap. Heating needs rise across communities at the same time, and when demand stays elevated for several days, operators need sufficient transportation capacity, stored supply and operational flexibility to keep serving customers. Storage is an essential reliability resource, and infrastructure decisions determine how much flexibility is available.

Gas and electricity must be planned together

As electrification accelerates, gas-fired generation plays an increasingly important role in supporting electricity reliability as coal plants retire and wind and solar resources expand. That is why the Outlook projects regional natural gas demand growth of approximately 1.3% annually, with much of the increase attributed to gas-fired generation. Electrification does not reduce the need for natural gas infrastructure; it adds to it.

These systems share responsibility for meeting winter demand. Cold weather can increase the need for direct gas heating while also raising electricity demand and the need for gas-fired generation.

The January 2024 cold snap exposed those interdependencies. NWGA’s Outlook announcement identifies the event as a clear reason to coordinate gas and electric planning. Utilities, pipeline operators, power producers and regulators need aligned assumptions about extreme weather, fuel availability and peak demand. Separate planning processes must produce a system that works together.

The planning clock is already running

New pipelines, storage facilities and compressor upgrades require engineering, financing, permitting and construction. Those steps take years, so every year of deferred investment narrows the region’s options. Waiting until operational data reveal recurring shortfalls can leave too little time to respond. Infrastructure planning must anticipate constraints early enough to evaluate alternatives, engage communities and complete necessary improvements.

Efficiency and demand response are valuable tools, and they will keep playing an important role in the transition. But none of them, alone or together, delivers the reliable, affordable energy customers need during a multi-day cold snap today. Each should be assessed for what it can reliably deliver under the conditions that put customers most at risk. Where the answer falls short, the region cannot keep declining to invest in the pipelines, storage and compressors that can. Winter will arrive on its own schedule.

Three priorities should guide investment

The first priority is reliability, which begins with the network already serving the region. More than 130,000 miles of pipeline, supported by storage, serve approximately 3.7 million households and nearly 10 million people today.Maintaining and selectively strengthening that system preserves valuable delivery capacity for the customers who depend on it now.

The second priority is affordability—and natural gas gives consumers a significant cost advantage. Gas heat costs about one-third as much as electric heat, helping households manage winter bills and businesses control operating expenses. Both energy systems require investment to serve growth and replace aging equipment, making it essential to preserve the value of the gas infrastructure customers already rely on. With the Outlook’s base-case gas price projection remaining below $6 per dekatherm through 2040, natural gas offers a strong foundation for affordable energy over the long term.

The third priority is lower-carbon energy, which relies on continued progress on efficiency, methane reduction and renewable natural gas, alongside careful evaluation of hydrogen’s potential. These advances should be pursued alongside reliable delivery today, not in place of it, and each investment should demonstrate measurable benefits while preserving dependable service.

The region’s challenge is to advance these priorities together, with transparent costs, realistic timelines, clear performance expectations and outcomes that alignwith what customers need. Efficiency, demand response and electrification will all play a role, but they cannot yet deliver the reliability and affordability customers need today, and the region cannot keep declining to invest in natural gas infrastructure during the transition.The next cold snap will test the infrastructure available that day. Decisions made now will determine whether the Pacific Northwest is ready.