Natural Gas and Coal : Energy Resources to Burn

This is a great article in that we have more natural resources for energy then we thought. Plus we have ways to extract and use them in efficient ways. But I still have this nagging question about coal.

We have estimated supplies of more than two hundred years in this country, and this estimate is just that. Some experts say there is more than this. The question is, what is so wrong with coal, even after the industry has complied with all EPA demands?

What we need is some even handed research, that once and for all, lays out what damage coal use does to the environment, if any. There is so much bad information coming from the biased media, it is very difficult to make good decisions regarding the future of coal as a major source of energy for our country.

With 45% of all our energy consumption coming from coal, and for the foreseeable future, we must have good information.

Natural Gas Flip-Flop
Source: Ronald Bailey, "Natural Gas Flip-Flop," Reason Magazine, August/September 2011.

The world's projected natural gas supplies jumped 40 percent last year. Until a decade ago, experts believed it would be technically infeasible to exploit the natural gas locked in 48 shale basins in 32 countries around the world. Then horizontal drilling, combined with hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, was introduced. The shale gas rush was on, and last year the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) dramatically raised its estimate of available natural gas, says Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine's science correspondent.

The ability to produce clean-burning natural gas from shale could transform the global energy economy.

Right now we burn about 7 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas to generate about 24 percent of the electricity used in the United States. The United States burns a total of 23 TCF annually to heat homes and supply industrial processes as well as produce electricity.

Burning coal still produces about 45 percent of U.S. electricity.

A rough calculation suggests that 100 percent of coal-powered electricity generation could be replaced by burning an additional 14 TCF of natural gas, boosting overall consumption to 37 TCF per year.

The EIA estimates total U.S. natural gas reserves at 2,543 TCF, which suggests that the United States has enough natural gas to last about 70 years if it entirely replaced the current level of coal-powered electricity generation. Similarly, it should be possible to replace all current U.S. gasoline consumption with about 17 TCF of natural gas per year.

So replacing coal and gasoline immediately would require burning 54 TCF annually, implying a nearly 50-year supply of natural gas. And replacing dirtier coal and gasoline with natural gas would reduce overall U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by about 25 percent.

The national green lobbies initially welcomed shale gas. But there is growing concern over the fracking method used to extract the natural gas. But, says Bailey, no industrial process is completely benign, and all have environmental consequences. The relevant question is: Do the benefits outweigh the costs?