No Tricks with Natural Gas, Just Treats!
Halloween season – it brings frights to life, and provides creative opportunities for all the costume fanatics in your life. Between the costume parties, trick-or-treaters, and fall festivals, few things are as synonymous with this season as the sweet treats that populate each and every one of these October mainstays. But did you know that natural gas plays a key role in fueling your sweet tooth?
Almost all candy production involves heating components of the sweets. That means, for your favorite peanut butter cup, chocolate caramel cookie bar, or flavored liquorish stick to be produced at factory scale, you need a lot of energy – and natural gas is perfect for fueling industrial sized stoves and ovens. Natural gas’s reliable and resilient nature is perfect for reaching the precise temperatures necessary for perfectly smooth caramels and creamy chocolates, all while keeping costs low. Commercial and industrial natural gas customers have saved more than $500 billion over the last decade – and that’s savings that keeps the sweet treat crowd satisfied and Halloween buckets full!
Natural gas is more than just the fuel to make produce the candy we all crave though – natural gas is also a key component in the agricultural efforts supplying the sugar, milk, eggs and other key ingredients for your favorite treats. Natural gas provides 70-80% of all energy used to produce nitrogen-based fertilizers for 68% of U.S. farms – these fertilizers are crucial for functional farms, providing nutrients to crops that can be harvested for direct culinary use or feed grain for livestock. Without the strong U.S. agriculture base fueled by natural gas and other petrochemical feedstocks, food products on shelves across the country would suffer from even further rising prices.
From the farms that grow the ingredients to the factories that craft each sweet, natural gas keeps America’s candy supply stocked and running as smooth as caramel. It’s the unseen force behind every nougat swirl and chocolate drizzle. So, as you fill your candy bowl this Halloween, remember there’s more than sugar and chocolate behind every treat – there’s the power of natural gas helping make it all possible.