Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
As I see it, if “cooking with gas” keeps us tethering new homes to natural gas grids for decades to come, our health, climate and wallets will pay the price.
The Netherlands is close to closing one of the world’s largest natural gas fields even as Europe faces acute energy shortages. Will the country be able to resist calls for continuing production that will mean sacrificing the homes and businesses of Dutch citizens?
Europe is finding out the hard way that there are no easy substitutes for oil and natural gas.
As the U.S. embarked on a vast expansion of natural gas exports, natural gas consumers complained that it would raise domestic prices. With prices now finally rising, the fight is on over whether to scale back those exports or at the very least pause their growth.
Those who say we can continuously grow the world economy without any untoward consequences like to use the canard that those of us concerned about limits have never been right about resources “running out.” But that’s not the real issue.
Natural gas was supposed to provide a bridge to the renewable energy future. But it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.
The revelation Monday that a blowout last year at an Ohio natural gas well owned by an ExxonMobil subsidiary was one of the country’s largest-ever leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane provoked impassioned calls for a rapid, just transition to 100% renewable energy nationwide.
The former CEO of America’s largest shale gas producer has just admitted publicly that the shale oil and gas industry has done nothing but destroy the capital of investors. Will his words make any difference?
Natural gas, marketed for years as a “bridge fuel” to cleaner energy sources, cannot be part of any climate solution, according to a new report from Oil Change International.
The evidence is overwhelming that natural gas has no net climate benefit in any timescale that matters to humanity. In fact, a shocking new study concludes that just the methane emissions escaping from New Mexico’s gas and oil industry are “equivalent to the climate impact of approximately 12 coal-fired power plants.” If the goal is to avoid catastrophic levels of warming, a recent report by U.K. climate researchers finds “categorically no role” to play for new natural gas production.
A contrarian indicator is an event which suggests that a broadly and firmly held view–in this case, the view that U.S. natural gas supplies will grow and remain cheap for decades–is about to begin a reversal.
Governments, expolration companies, and even the U.N. are striving for the next fossil fuel technological leap – accessing the huge gas reserves in methane hydrates. If they are successful, shale gas may pale in comparison.
