Is the larger assessments of natural gas reserves in the US going to affect the Copenhagen discussions?

The economics of natural gas: Drowning in it The Economist: "The big news is that in June the Potential Gas Committee, a semi-official body, revised its estimates of America’s gas reserves, raising them 39% above its assessment in 2006. The biggest part of that boost comes from higher estimates of gas in shale formations, which were formerly difficult and expensive to reach. Advances in horizontal drilling and the hydraulic fracturing of rock have made it possible to get previously inaccessible gas out. Shale gas, according to the committee, accounts for two-thirds of America’s technically recoverable reserves, enough to supply the country for 90 years"

According to Wikipedia shale gas could amount to half the production of natural gas in North America by 2020 and potentially affect pricing of Russian natural gas in Europe. Some greens, however, think that shale gas could slow down the development of renewable sources of energy.

Unconventional gas production is expected to rise from 42% in 2007 to 64% in 2020.

The coal fired plants are however less expensive to operate. There is a third more gas-fired plants but they are only switched on at high demand. Canada remains the largest source for imported gas and supplies 86% of all imported liquefied natural gas. According to the CIA World Factbook the US produces 546 billion cubic meters of natural gas and it consumes 653 bcm so its import is about 130 bcm.

It is the Waxman-Markey bill that will make gas the preferred energy source over coal. My conclusion is that the low price for coal derived energy is going to hamper the switch to renewables.