Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
A number of other factors—including ready capital, a trained workforce, great-
er access to pipelines by third parties, the ability to hedge the risks of gas explor-
ation, and a robust energy market—helped to accelerate gas's acceptance. Utilities
saw it as a stable, affordable, relatively clean source of power. In 2008, natural gas
amounted to about 20 percent of the nation's energy production; by 2012 it amoun-
ted to over 30 percent, a number that is likely to keep growing. The EIA forecasts
that domestic natural gas production will grow 44 percent—from 23 trillion cubic
feet (tcf) to 33.1 tcf—between 2011 and 2040.
34
Natural gas emits less CO
2
than other fossil fuels and requires less processing (or
refining, to remove the other elements) than oil, and so it has been promoted as a
“bridge fuel”—a cleaner-burning alternative to oil and coal that will ease the trans-
ition to renewable energy supplies such as wind, solar, and hydropower.
35
It will take decades and billions of dollars to scale-up the capacity of renewable
energy plants. In the meantime, natural gas advocates—such as the Texas energy
billionaire T. Boone Pickens—believe it is a “second best” solution, one that will
reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the near term while delivering energy inde-
pendence from petro states.
36
mans have already pumped so much carbon into the air, skeptics say, that switch-
ing to natural gas will only cut the global warming effect by 20 percent over 100
years. “There are lots of reasons to like natural gas, but climate change isn't one
of them,” said climatologist Ken Caldeira and former Microsoft chief technology
officer Nathan Myhrvold, who together published a critical study of the gas boom
in
Environmental Review Letters
. “It's worthless for [fighting] climate change.”
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Nonetheless, energy executives tout so-called unconventional fuels, many of which
are extracted by hydrofracking.
Unconventional gas
refers to shale gas, coal bed methane, subterranean coal gasi-
fication, or tight gas.