Can Natural Gas Break Our Oil Habit?
It is cleaner and more abundant, but it won't free America from foreign energy
Reader Comments
re: Natural gas for heating homes
John -
Homes can easily and efficiently use solar power to heat their space and hot water. Burning coal and/or wood are things of the past.
The dirty truth behind clean natural gas
While I appreciate the scope of coverage on this article regarding the possibility of natural gas helping to end our dependence on foreign oil, there is a great an undisclosed cost that is rarely mentioned in the press regarding this promising resource:
Total environmental devastation: A stunning comment, seemingly improbable, but, in unconventional gas plays, it is all too common. I know. I live with it.
There is a growing list of communities that can now light their water on fire, yet, gas companies routinely deny impacts and force citizens to ensure monumental financial burdens of scientific discovery and litigation.
The dirty truth behind natural gas is unpleasant. It does burn cleaner, but its development destroys individuals, communities, economies, agriculture, wildlife, air quality, drinking water sources - you name it.
Can't quite believe that? I've been documenting the devastation for over a year on my website: journeyoftheforsaken.com
There, you'll see how wells blow-up, how hydrocarbons get into groundwater, how wildlife react by vacating an area or die trying.
Don't be fooled by T. Boone-doggle Picken's promise of abundant, cheap, easy, clean gas - from which he stands to make millions.
If you're looking for the truth you have to look 8,000 feet down
No mention of "renewable"
Nice article, but... no mention of the fact that gas is no more renewable than oil! (Or nuclear, for that matter!) Switching will perhaps buy us a few years, but the concept is still wrong! Destroying our environment for energy makes no sense in the long run!
Natural gas for heating homes
I guess when the price of natural gas is driven up by power generation and the other suggested uses people will have to return to wood or coal for heating their homes. Won't that be fun? Will that be environmentally friendly or what?
Natural gas for heating homes
I guess when the price of natural gas is driven up by power generation and the other suggested uses people will have to return to wood or coal for heating their homes. Won't that be fun? Will that be environmentally friendly or what?
Prett good article
Nicely rounded bit of subject material for Natural gas, as it plays into the total energy scheme of things
GAs or OIL
Seems we are boound to pay, THRU the nose for someone else's preconcieved problems. If it is going to take ten - twelve years to get that wind-mill small enough to fit in MY car, why NOT go to Natural Gas as an interim step. The money spent would go primarily to nations with friendly elations with us. We could selectively cut certain countries out of our markets (Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, even Russia come readily to mind here - use OIL for political purposes - lose your customer)!
To keep sending what is now approximately $500 Billion per year to countries that harbor ill will toward us, is ludicrous! We allow Cuba and China, countries who definately have OUR best interests on their minds, explore off the NORTH COAST of Cuba (southern coast of Florida last time I looked at a map)! The major portion of THAT oil is under our international waters! But we cannot explore for it! What happens if there is a blow-out, the prevailing winds and currents will push everything onto the Florida Coastline! Will they be concerned? SURE THEY WILL!
What, exactly, is it that gets us from Oil to Electric/Wind? Doesn't everything developed need to be scaled to fit/work? That would take a good deal of time and development wouldn't it! Oh, that's the wind energy we're talking about, talking?
Unhelpful comments
I think the above article is not conducive to a balanced debate on energy supplies. Confrontational arguments regarding where the U.S sources its oil and gas; only hinder how America is viewed around the world.
I think the energy market itself will decide when to rely more on sources of gas as opposed to oil (driven by supply and demand, material costs, and government policy), what is crucial is that the U.S and the developed world as a whole concentrate on reducing it's emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases.
can natural gas break our oil habit
What tripe from all sides -- is the chief merit of natural gas that it is better than the worst? And if its virtue is that it is not "foreign" why the alleged need for importing it in liquefied form? With only 3% of the world's oil resource being in US, why don't we just drop the idiotic redundancy of the term "foreign oil"? Unless, of course, we actually acknowledge that this term is an artifact of industry propaganda to justify domestic drilling with no restrictions, based on an "us vs them" jingoistic rationale?
Fair and balanced - NOT
This could have been written by a lobbyist for the oil industry.
Importing oil from dangerous parts of the world is an enormous security risk for the US. We need a cohesive plan to remove our reliance on imported oil. Natural gas vehicles is a key component towards this end.
Yes, there are barriers toward significantly ramping up the natural gas industry. Since there is a huge security risk for the country the government can and should take action.
The first and most significant problem is the infrastructure. There aren't enough filling stations. IF the government started migrating it's fleet of vehicles (let's start with the post office) to nat. gas that would create the demand for the infrastructure. It would also lower the cost of delivering the mail.
The second issue is range. Well it turns out the same combustion engine with very little modification can burn both petrol and nat. gas. In fact, several auto manufactures sell cars in Europe that have both a petrol tank and a nat. gas tank. You simply flip a switch to change the source. For most commuting you run on nat. gas and long trips are enabled by the petrol. Also, home filling stations (for overnight filling) are estimated at $1000 in volume.
The third issue is cost of the vehicle. Well, this is just silly. Putting up the low volume Honda cost as an example is disingenuous. There is no inherent reason for nat gas vehicles to cost more than gasoline cars.
It is criminal to waste nat gas to produce electricity. We should be reserving it for vehicles and heating. Yes, wind has problems that will limit massive deployment. We should be investing in nuclear plants for electricity. Nuclear plants scale and they have an extremely small carbon footprint. We need a national initiative to ramp up nuke plant production. This will also lower the cost of nuke plants.
