The Natural Gas Hype

Natural Gas

Rebecca Leber deflates it:

If you thought of natural gas as a useful “bridge fuel” to help America transition from dirty to clean energy, a new study published in Environmental Research Letters has some disappointing news: Natural gas won’t cure our greenhouse-gas affliction. Rather, the study finds, abundant and cheap gas would cause people to consume more electricity, and since gas competes directly with renewables, it will delay the transition to clean power. The result: natural gas does not noticeably lower emissions.

Brooks Miner adds that “natural gas does have a dark side: It is composed primarily of methane, which has a much stronger climate-warming effect than carbon dioxide.”