Climate Change

Climate Change, Clean Energy and Natural Gas

August 11, 2009 by Dan Gibson, American Gas Association

Sen. Harry Reid opened his remarks at the Clean Energy Summit by saying, “I’ve been converted. I now belong to the Pickens church.” The news today out of the Clean Energy Summit is that the conversation has been all about natural gas and efficiency.

Those two go hand-in-hand as natural gas is extremely efficient. 70 percent of the total amount of fuels used in producing, generating and transmitting electricity is lost by the time that electricity reaches a customer. By contrast, producing and delivering natural gas directly loses only about 10 percent of its usable energy.
Senator Reid isn’t the only one that’s starting to see the positive potential of natural gas.

Dave Hamilton, the Sierra Club’s director of global warming and energy programs, said he is not concerned that interest in natural gas will stall renewable energy or energy efficiency efforts because “I think the futures are intertwined.”

Al Gore specifically called out natural gas shale as an important potential resource and endorsed Pickens’ plan for natural gas-powered trucks.

John Podesta, the CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Funda, and former Sen. Timothy Wirth published an article as the summit opened on the Center For American Progress Action Fund’s web site. The article, “Natural Gas: A Bridge Fuel for the 21st Century,” offers concrete suggestions for how we can use natural gas as a bridge fuel to a 21st-century energy economy. The suggestions include more incentives and credits for replacing coal and gasoline with natural gas technologies.

Last month to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Wirth told the natural gas industry it “has more to gain, and a greater contribution to make, than any other industry in America or, for that matter, in the world.”

It sounds like people are starting to get our message. Are you convinced yet?