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Natural Gas Critics Miss the Big Picture

Posted at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2012

Michael Levi defends the recent boom in natural gas production, arguing that critics of exploiting this fuel need to be “realistic.”

“The world still generates 46 per cent of its electricity from coal, a figure that is projected to increase slightly over the next 25 years without any changes in government policies. Replacing coal-fired power stations with gas-fired equivalents slashes carbon dioxide emissions roughly by half… Alas, those who oppose natural gas on the grounds that all CO2 emissions are intolerable, are living in a fantasy world.”

“Abundant gas is good news in the foreseeable future: the US should be applauded for its gains, others should seek to emulate it, and all should use policy to encourage the replacement of coal with gas in the short term… But the parties should also agree that gas is far from a permanent climate solution. With that in mind, they should strengthen their efforts, individually and collectively, to promote innovation and development of cost-effective zero-carbon energy options.”

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Energy & Environment

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  • mrbeenie

    We’re not “missing the big picture” and we’re not “living in a fantasy world.” The only way to get off of fossil fuels is to stop using all of them, period. No exceptions. There are hundreds of other alternatives to natural gas, so we should be focusing on those, not spouting out all of this “its the lesser of two evils” crap.

    • Tom_P

      None of those make money for the companies in question, though, now do they?

    • Pops

      Absent a revolution in solar energy or a breakthrough on fusion, nuclear and hydro are the only economically viable non-CO2-emitting alternatives to natural gas. You can’t go cold turkey on fossil fuels, it’s a fantasy. Anything that reduces emissions now is better than something that will maybe eliminate them at some unspecified point in the future.

  • moderatesunite

    certainly we should recognize that new natural gas is likely to be a component of our energy development for the next few years, and regonize that is better than New Coal.
    But we also need to recognize that any decades long reliance on Natural Gas or any other fossil fuel is unacceptable and will create incredibly devastating climate effects. We need to make a goal that all new energy development will be be renewable within the next 10 years.
    In the United States we are getting closer to that in spite of the lack of government action

  • ultragreen

    The sooner we no longer rely on fossil fuels for energy, the better. In the long run, non-renewable sources of energy are a dead end — they will run out eventually, while the cost of producing energy from fossil fuels will steadily rise. The adverse consequences of global warming are yet another strike against them.

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