If ethanol and other renewables are the new rock ‘n’ roll, it does not take a long memory to recall when natural gas was the “new” fossil fuel.

Cleaner-burning and more efficient than coal – which still is used to make half of the electricity used in the US – the boom in natural gas infrastructure in the US during the late 1990s and early part of the decade has foundered on the combination of price volatility and rising extraction costs.