The first step is to separate uses that must have natural gas, from those for which there is an alternative. For example, there are alternate ways to generate electricity and heat our buildings, but natural gas is necessary as a feedstock for making plastics and fertilizers.
At some point we clearly are going to have to phase out natural gas for space heating. As the oil age winds down, natural gas will simply become too valuable as a feedstock to waste on keeping us warm. As there currently are 62 million residential and 5 million commercial customers for natural gas, this is going to be very long and expensive process — comparable to replacing all the cars and trucks in the country with more energy efficient vehicles.
The place to start this reducing our consumption of natural is obviously conservation. As a nation, we are going to have to really tighten up our buildings. The goal should be 50 percent or better reduction in natural gas consumption. When natural gas becomes unacceptably expensive as a heating fuel, then good insulation will serve equally well for keeping down the consumption of whatever replaces the natural gas.