U .S. natural gas industry leaders are amping up calls for the Biden administration and other governments to embrace the energy source ahead of a tough winter for much of the West.

Europe's acute energy crisis, the pricey winter facing New England, and California's grid woes illustrate a need to increase production and transport of natural gas, gas executives argued Tuesday during an industry conference, where several also cast doubt on the viability of the fossil fuel -free future hoped for by leaders in each of those regions.

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The Biden administration and European governments have set ambitious targets to become net-zero economies by 2050. President Joe Biden also intends for the U.S. electric sector to be 100% carbon-free by 2035.

Those who are green-minded in Europe (and, to a lesser degree, the United States) maintain those goals but are simultaneously grappling with major energy supply problems and ballooning prices that, in some places, have led utilities to restart coal-fired power plants.

Pro-fossil fuel interests have criticized Europe's aggressive climate change policies that generally favor investment in renewable energy sources over fossil fuels sources, including oil and gas, for driving prices higher.

"People have been misled to think they can live in a world without fossil fuel fuels," Toby Rice, the president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based gas giant EQT Corporation, said during remarks at the Shale Insight 2022 conference hosted by Appalachian gas industry group Marcellus Shale Coalition.

"What they're missing, I think, is that people don't understand how much energy demand there is in the world," he said.

Rice, who has been in Washington all year long lobbying for policies that will enable an "unleashing" of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports, has been marketing the industry as an ideal solution for Europe, where consumers and industries are buckling under the weight of astronomical energy prices stemming from the major disruptions to energy markets caused by the war in Ukraine.

Gas has been getting a boost thanks to the crisis. U.S. LNG exports have already risen to new heights this year , with larger shares going to European buyers that are dealing with disruptions to supplies from Russia, historically Europe's top source of foreign gas.

European leaders pledged after the war began to phase out their energy trade with Russia, although Russia has accelerated the timeline by cutting off supplies. The Biden administration, for its part, took up the task of facilitating more LNG shipments to allies in Europe to help insulate them, fill their stores, and protect them from a complete shutoff from Russia.

The industry has taken up the change in fortunes as a charge to produce more, with Rice and others framing more exports as being geopolitically advantageous for reducing Russia's influence and environmentally advantageous for giving energy-strained allies an alternative to firing up coal-fired plants again.

"We are drilling holes in the ground for a higher purpose, and that higher purpose is to bring energy security to the world and help arrest emissions," Rice said.

Natural gas is a fundamental resource to the U.S. economy. It accounted for around 38% of electricity generation in 2021, a higher share than any other source, and has helped to drive down carbon emissions where it's displaced coal use in the sector, according to the Energy Information Administration. Gas also remains the most common source of home heating in the northern U.S. and in Europe.

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Many Democrats in Congress have sought to limit the growth of the sector in various ways, including through legislation to end new leasing of federal lands for oil and gas development, on the grounds that it is driving climate change.

Gas has been given a qualified embrace from some leading green voices, including climate envoy John Kerry , who, among others, considers it to be a "bridge fuel" to be used to displace coal and reduce carbon emissions while economies build green energy resources to phase out greenhouse gas-emitting resources altogether.

The way Rice and others see it, gas provides reliability and heating characteristics that other resources can't guarantee.

"Natural gas is not a bridge fuel," said Rob Boulware, the director of stakeholder relations for Seneca Resources Company. "Hydrocarbons are building blocks that make modern life better."