This work summarizes a two-year study by the U.S. Federal Methane Hydrate Advisory Committee recommending the future needs for federally-supported hydrate research. The Report was submitted to the US Congress on August 14, 2007 and includes four recommendations regarding (a) permafrost hydrate production testing, (b) marine hydrate viability assessment (c) climate effect of hydrates, and (d) international cooperation. A secure supply of natural gas is a vital goal of the U.S. national energy policy because natural gas is the cleanest and most widely used of all fossil fuels. The inherent cleanliness of natural gas, with the lowest CO2 emission per unit of heat energy of any fossil fuel, means substituting gas for coal and fuel oil will reduce emissions that can exacerbate the greenhouse effect. Both a fuel and a feedstock, a secure and reasonably priced supply of natural gas is important to industry, electric power generators, large and small commercial enterprises, and homeowners. Because each volume of solid gas hydrate contains as much as 164 standard volumes of methane, hydrates can be viewed as a concentrated form of natural gas equivalent to compressed gas but less concentrated than liquefied natural gas (LNG). Natural hydrate accumulations worldwide are estimated to …

We report on the scattering parameters and Johnson noise emission of low-pass stripline filters employing a magnetically loaded silicone dielectric down to 25 mK. The transmission characteristic of a device with f-3dB=1.3 GHz remains essentially unchanged upon cooling. Another device with f-edB=0.4 GHz, measured in its stopband, exhibits a steady state noise power emission consistent with a temperature difference of a few mK relative to a well-anchored cryogenic microwave attenuator at temperatures down to 25 mK, thus presenting a matched thermal load.