The only way for utilities to meet demand as they retire coal-fired power plants will be to build a host of new natural-gas fired units, Deutsche Bank Vice President and Climate Change Research Analyst Nils Mellquist says in this Breaking Energy podcast.

Mellquist speaks here with Breaking Energy’s Felicity Carus after a presentation at the Ceres conference in California where he said the US had the potential to become the “Saudi Arabia of gas.”

Mellquist believes that state leadership on hydraulic fracturing and water use and disposal issues is addressing concerns about drilling for the fuel.

“In my judgment, there has been under-regulation in this industry,” Mellquist says here. With federal inaction, “the onus really falls on the states,” a process that is already underway.

EPA regulations, combined with the high capital cost to retrofit coal plants will mean increased substitution of coal-fired generation with natural gas generation, he argues.

For Mellquist’s perspective on a number of major issues facing the US electricity sector, listen to this Breaking Energy podcast.

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