Cramer on BloggingStocks: Obama has to see the light on nat gas

That was just a few years ago. I devoured everything I could read about the Marcellus Shale and quickly asked the governor to come on the show. I had known him for years, had helped raise money for him and thought this natural gas patch might be the thing he needed to get people in his state hiring again in good jobs.

Initially, he didn't seem all that interested. In fact, I dealt more with his environmental preservation people than him, as there were initial thoughts that too much water was being used and too many roads broken down.

All of that has now been dealt with and this weekend Rendell actually made sure that the industry wasn't taxed for bringing nat gas out of the ground, setting the stage for a drilling boom and pipeline laying -- the infrastructure for this is much better in Louisiana and Texas than Pennsylvania so both the drilling rigs and the pipelines have to be moved and created.

Rendell's pretty confident that as many as 200,000 jobs will be created over the next few years and that nat gas will be used as a bridge fuel. He also believes that if the federal government mandates that its own fleets be natural gas-capable, we will have gone a long way toward switching to this fuel.

Was he helped by lobbyists like Murry Gerber, the CEO of EQT (NYSE: EQT) (Cramer's Take), the largest natural gas company in Pennsylvania?

No. While he took money from them, I think he saw an opportunity to get the drilling companies to come to Pennsylvania over New York, which already has made life hell for them over environmental concerns, and over West Virginia, which does tax the stuff.

The big news for the country on this is that Rendell, while from the Hillary wing, is a commonsensical, middle-of-the-road Democrat who wants to take a leadership position on these matters.

If he does, then the president -- who is in the solar/wind/clean coal wing of the party -- might see the light on the issue.

That means that natural gas gets a floor with the ceiling provided by the glut of nat gas that will become equilibrium if the Rendell scenario plays out.

That's good for everyone.



Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in the stocks mentioned.