With help from Anthony Adragna and Darius Dixon

TALKING ENERGY POVERTY: A lot of today’s action at the World Gas Conference focused on how the industry was poised to break into new markets — and what that could mean for easing poverty and raising living standards in developing countries . Senate Energy Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) devoted much of her keynote address this morning to how access to energy helps improve lives, something she said people in the fuel-rich U.S. take for granted. Too many people, she said, have an “immaculate conception theory” of energy: It just happens. “It’s easy to forget the blessings that energy brings to our daily lives,” she said.

On the home front: Murkowski said her state is working “very hard, very aggressively” to get the Alaska liquefied natural gas project off the ground, with the aim of producing 20 million metric tons a year. The project, which has drawn the interest of the Chinese government, would tap into gas fields in Alaska’s North Slope and ship the gas through a planned 800-mile pipeline to a liquefaction plant in Nikiski, near Anchorage.

Let me be clear: Asked by reporters after her talk about whether she’d back tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the event of a massive oil supply disruption like a terrorist attack, Murkowski returned to a theme familiar to the D.C. press corps: “There are issues that I think we cannot anticipate that could certainly rattle things,” she said. “The SPR is designed to be that safety net. I want to make sure that it’s always there to be that safety net. In the event of something as you have described, there is that possibility.”

Welcome back to POLITICO’s Inside Report on the World Gas Conference. I’m Matt Daily, the energy editor at POLITICO Pro. Got a gas tip or leakage leak? Send them my way at [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @dailym1.

WORLD OF GAS

DOE, OPIC PRESS FOR LATIN AMERICAN INVESTMENT: Energy Secretary Rick Perry returned to the conference this morning to make a joint announcement with Ray Washburne, CEO of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp., about their effort to bring $1 billion in spending for energy projects throughout Latin America (excluding countries like Venezuela and Cuba).

Under the plan, OPIC would provide guarantees to back up as much as $750 million in financing for the private sector over the next three years, while the Energy Department will “identify regions and sectors” that “present opportunities for U.S. energy companies.”

Perry also told reporters that even if Mexico takes a leftward political lean in its elections on Sunday, the energy bonds between the two countries will persist.

“Regardless of who will be the next president of Mexico, they’re our neighbor. They’re not moving. They’re going to be there, the resources are going to be there,” he said.

ABOUT THOSE NEW GAS MARKETS: The gas industry may be looking at developing regions as lucrative new markets where it can help feed the fast-growing electricity demand, but things may not be as rosy as they look. Steep drops in the price of renewables like solar and wind power are starting to make those technologies viable alternatives in many places, said Rachel Kyte, a special representative of the UN Secretary-General, and the head of the U.N.'s Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

“And that provides countries with another arrow in their quiver,” she told an audience. That means the gas industry had better think again if it assumes that simply having a better environmental profile than coal will win over these new markets, she said.

“Gas will not be a solution for poverty in a world where climate change is driving more people into poverty unless you fix your methane problem,” she said, referring to news that global gas infrastructure was leaking far more of the powerful greenhouse gas than previously believed. “We have to put regulation in place to make sure we plug the methane links.”

A study published last week in Science showed methane leakage from energy operations was 60 percent higher than previous estimates. Methane traps more heat than carbon dioxide, and leakage along the natural gas value chain undermines the industry’s arguments that its fuel helps fight climate change.

“It’s a real issue, its not overblown. ... It needs to be addressed if we’re going to win over the public,” Mark Zoback, director of the Natural Gas Initiative at Stanford University, told the audience.

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CYBER SECURITY

CYBER RATTLING: The gas industry has big plans for new fields, pipelines and LNG facilities — but keeping its networks and infrastructure safe from cyberattacks seems to be a work in progress. Last year’s NotPetya attack that started in Ukraine and has been blamed on Russia is believed to have cost companies around the world billions of dollars — including a $300 million tab for U.S. drug maker Merck and at least $400 million for FedEx. Those figures have caught the energy industry’s attention.

“The energy sector is a major target of these kinds of attacks. We know that Russia has done them, Iran has done them,” Matt Olsen, a co-founder of IronNet Cybersecurity and the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the audience. Cyber experts said the vastness of the natural gas distribution network and the thousands of companies that have access to it mean there are just too many vulnerabilities to create a foolproof defense.

“There’s simply no way you can protect all the pipelines,” said Galina Antova, co-founder at cybersecurity firm Claroty.

So what’s to be done? The folks at Schneider Electric have been working with the Department of Homeland Security for years on the issues facing big installations, and though the government-industry partnership hasn’t been perfect, it’s getting better. “They have a whole group of folks who think they know the industry well and they come up with their own points of view,” Gary Freburger, president of the company’s Process Automation business, told POLITICO this week. “And I would say it’s starting to come together, but I wouldn’t say there is a good, complete alignment today.”

Schneider’s Triconex control system, used at nuclear facilities, oil and gas plants and water treatment facilities, was hit in a cyberattack last year that reportedly led to the shutdown of a Middle Eastern facility. The company has many clients who are operating older facilities that lack modern cyber defenses. Persuading those companies to invest in upgrades can sometimes be challenging. “Until a big incident happens to a company, it’s hard for them to get their heads around the risks,“ Freburger said.

Andy Kling, the company’s director of cybersecurity and software practices, said he’s pushing the government to think carefully before it sets regulations — and to take less of a punitive stance when creating standards for companies. “There should be incentives for companies to take action,” he said, such as tax breaks for new investments.

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP (SMALL-SCALE) LNG: Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) joined industry speakers to sound an optimistic tone about opportunities for small to medium-scale LNG exports. “I can’t tell you how many countries I’ve met with over the last eight years talking about wanting to be customers and purchase excess natural gas from America,” Johnson said, adding he hoped to see House floor time soon for H.R. 4606 (115) , his legislation that would allow the expedited approval of small-scale LNG shipments that qualify for categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Mike Culligan, manager of LNG technology and licensing at ConocoPhillips, said: “We do have a very strong interest in helping the world build out small and mid-scale projects where it’s appropriate.” Still, the smaller projects were “an important and growing piece of the puzzle, but by no means a revolution.”