Natural gas: The key U.S. energy source for the next decade?

Natural gas is experiencing a perfect storm of new technology, a reluctance to cut production, and a pricing anomaly that together may make it a dominant energy source in the U.S. in the decades ahead. How has this happened?

First, there's the commodity's low price. Natural gas hit a seven-year low on Thursday, falling through the psychologically significant $3-per-million-BTUs threshold, on rising supplies and low demand from industry and power plants. Traders say prices could fall to $2.25 to $2.50 per MMBtus before rebounding with increasing demand -- assuming the U.S. economy continues to recover.