Readers of this space know that the preferred public policy has stance has the United States moving away from first dependency on oil imports, then dependency on oil, period.

And the reason is obvious enough: as convenient as oil has been, it's created havoc for the U.S. economy, via series of oil shocks. Hence, yours truly is always in search of that breakthrough, universal, accessible, affordable energy form that will final break oil's grip on the United States energy system. That breakthrough energy form has not appeared yet, but one that may contend for that title is natural gas.

The first four picks were all from the contenders list, but here I reach back to earlier in the year, when in May, I wrote about why I thought Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) would outperform four other, more popular stocks.

I compared it to Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B).

During the past seven months this turned out to be true for half the period, but Apple came on strong and passed it by the second review.

Could natural gas become the new, primary fuel for the United States in the 21st century?

It's possible, if new drilling techniques that have the potential to vastly increase the U.S.'s natural gas supplies are deemed safe by regulators.

Exxon-Mobil (XOM) jolted the energy world with its decision to buy natural gas giant XTO Energy (XTO) for $41 billion. The deal brings Exxon's enormous financial resources to XTO, which has made a name for itself via its expertise in the new technique of hydraulic fracturing, which enables companies to profitably access much more natural gas from current fields, and access gas at previously cost-prohibitive fields.

Perhaps the initial euphoria over the prospects for a massive increase in natural gas supply -- both in the U.S. and globally -- were a bit premature.

The reason? The new techniques -- such as hydraulic fracturing -- to access the gas from previously hard-to-access or untapped beds are causing environmental problems, the chief of which is the contamination of drinking water wells, and water supplies, The New York Times reported. The Times added that so far the incidence of groundwater contamination is thin, but environmental groups counter that's because governments have been slow to monitor the drilling boom and are not looking hard enough for contamination.

Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE - option chain) stock is trading lower today after the company reported third-quarter earnings yesterday evening, posting a loss of $18.46 million, or 31 cents per share, on revenue of $31.18 million. Analysts had forecast a 30-cent loss per share on revenue of $34.96 million. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on CLNE.

This morning, CLNE opened at $12.25. So far today the stock has hit a high of $12.25 and a low of $11.55. As of 11:40, CLNE is trading at $11.87, down 97 cents (-7.6%). The chart for CLNE looks bearish.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says perhaps he can learn from Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, who has become a believer in the fuel.

Maybe President Obama can make the transition to natural gas that Ed Rendell just did in Pennsylvania. The transition is a simple one: Focus on jobs and many things go well; don't focus on jobs and you aren't focused on anything.

When I first heard of the Marcellus Shale from Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK) (Cramer's Take), I was pretty much in disbelief. How could there be so much natural gas in some place in western Pennsylvania? Too good to be true.

True, Schlumberger's stock has meandered in the past three months, but that's just a disguise.

Oilfield and energy services company Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), first recommended on May 6, 2009 at a price of $56.05, remains well-positioned to benefit from the secular trend of increased oil and natural gas exploration and development.

Baxter (NYSE: BAX) is hosting an analyst day on September 16. BAX closed at $55.60. BAX September option implied volatility of 22 is near its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) closed at $23.09. Natural gas is recently up 1.32% to 2.844 according to Bloomberg. CHK September option implied volatility is at 45, October is at 47; below its 26-week average of 61, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

The plunge in natural gas prices has hurt natural gas and related energy support plays, but just look on that as a buy opportunity, given natural gas's likely large role in the U.S.'s energy future.

Hence, I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD), first recommended on April 29, 2009 at a price of $24.24.

This morning, oil firm Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) posted second-quarter earnings and a warning about North American natural gas markets. First things first, HAL reported second-quarter earnings of 30 cents per share (excluding a $12-million charge stemming from job cuts). While these results were far worse than the 55 cents per share the company earned a year ago, they still managed to top the consensus estimate by four cents per share. The situation was the same for quarterly revenue, which fell to $3.49 billion (from $4.49 billion a year ago) but still managed to outpace the Street's expectations - which called for $3.41 billion.

The U.S. natural gas market has been slumping of late – with prices trading around $3.50 per million BTUs – but don't be fooled: one hot summer and a recovering U.S. economy will turn that sector around in a hurry. And with this in mind, Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) is worth a look.

Chesapeake concentrates on increasing natural gas reserves via acquisition and field development. CHK has proved reserves of 12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent, mostly in the mid-continent U.S. region.

Unlike crude oil, natural gas is mainly a domestic product, with 84% of US natural gas produced withing the United States. The US produces more natural gas that any other country except Russia. Yet because of the strong demand in the US, prices paid by US consumers are the highest in the world.

So while crude oil it subject to the political maneuvers of OPEC and other oil producing countries, that is not the case with natural gas. The moves in natural gas prices is mainly a domestic affair. Prices peaked last July at $13.694 per million BTU's and since then have fallen 74%. Natural gas in storage was at 1.614 trillion cubic feet, 35% higher than last year and 23% above the five year average.

With this glut of supplies, prices have fallen steadily and hit a 6 1/2 year low at $3.504 per million BTU's then rebounded, up 1.8 cents at $3.628 per million BTU's. The slight uptick was said to have come from bargain hunting at these low prices.

Have the natural gas prices dropped in your area?

There has been little to cheer about this earnings season, and even mediocre news has brought hope to some. However, today Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC), one of my long time favorites, has reported that profits rose three-fold to $824 million, or $1.79 a share, versus $264 million, or 56 cents a share, from last year.

This result is in good part due to the sale of a Brazilian oil field and non-cash hedging gains related to derivatives.

Here's an idea if you are worried about your heating bills this winter. The price of natural gas is crashing. The price decreases last week continued a down trend that's gone on for six months. Why? The economic downturn slows demand for gas and many companies are announcing layoffs and closing plants around the country. Reduced prices for natural gas are also a result of growing capacity in the U.S. because of increases in production at new fields. Natural gas prices are at multi-year lows falling from 65% from more than $13.31 per MMBtu (the way gas is measured) in July 2008 to under $5 -- the lowest since October 13, 2006.

United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that reflects the price of natural gas in the United States. UNG attempts to mirror the performance, net expenses, of natural gas at the Henry Hub, Louisiana.

Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL - option chain) shares have risen this higher morning after the company announced a major natural gas discovery in the Tamar prospect in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. NBL owns a 36% stake in the well, and company CEO Charles Davidson called the find the largest discovery in the company's history.

If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on NBL.

NBL opened this morning at $50.44. So far today the stock has hit a low of $47.59 and a high of $50.50. As of 12:15, NBL is trading at $49.77, up 2.98 (6.4%). The chart for NBL looks neutral and S&P gives NBL a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a February bull-put credit spread below the $35 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think, but still leverages nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 6.4% return in just four weeks as long as NBL is above $35 at February expiration. Noble would have to fall by more than 29% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

NBL hasn't been below $35 in the past year except for two days in October and has shown support around $41 recently.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in NBL.