In yet another useful special report at the “Financial Times” – this one today on the gas industry – there are two articles on the theme of what I was talking about recently in which natural gas is being positioned as a “transition” fuel to the low-carbon future. (See Natural Gas – to Cut GHG Emissions and Natural Gas in the Senate.)
One of the FT articles is Climate change: Transition fuel or true low carbon option? One major energy company top executive says that he would like to set a target of “…raising US gas consumption by 1,000bn cubic feet a year – a 4 per cent increase – to make it possible to close 150,000 megawatts of old coal-fired plants.” The argument increasingly being made by the gas industry folks is that long made by environmental activists: coal is the most GHG- intensive fuel for electricity production and its use needs to be radically curtailed. (Politics and strange bedfellows?)
The other article here of interest in this context is about the industry trying to get the US government to pay attention to the potential here. The newly formed industry group, America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), has come out swinging. As I noted recently, the Kerry-Boxer bill in the US Senate incorporates language on natural gas that the Waxman-Markey had not. ANGA seems to be making itself heard. Better late than never.
For a PDF of the whole report, go here.
By the way, I am not intrinsically against business and other special interests being heard in the halls of power. I just think they should not have undue influence. If good public policy happens to coincide with some commercial interests, then so be it. It just would be a lot better for everyone at the end of the day if the public policy part of the equation always came first. (Did I hear a snicker out there? Or was that me?)
