While I whole heartedly support your statements, and am very pleased (on a personal note) to hear of your recommendation of Mr Riodan; I must disagree with your time table.
Given the price of oil at ~$30+, the national interest in relieving our dependance on (hostile) foreign nations, and the profit potential that TDP provides ... I think that 20 years is pretty pessimistic. Might I venture that the answer is closer to 5-10?
The 1980's and 1990's were the best years for GRI. They did wonderful research in areas of natural gas exploration, processing, transportation and end use. It was mainly funded by a FERC surcharge on pipeline gas until the era of deregulation when the pipelines successfully fought for its removal. Some of the products that came out the research are in common use today by industry and GRI research in coal-bed methane technology, which allowed development and production of that gas, significantly expanded our domestic natural gas reserves.