In the run-up to U.S. election, drilling lobby promotes natural gas (2025 Update)

Nobody has heard of an natural gas spill so in that regard it is clean. It also produces less CO2 than coal or petroleum. Until someone actually comes up with a viable alternative it is the least worst fuel.

It will be a us vs. them argument. Gas burns cleaner than other fuels but I don't really know much about the other problems.

Please be more precise. "Nobody" in this context encompasses everyone. You can't possibly know what anyone else has (not) heard of much less what everyone has (not) heard of.

You simply should have written "I havn't" rather than "Nobody has".

For your education:

Yes, but wind and solar don't work for large economies or populations that are highly dispersed. California has rolling blackouts/brownouts, and power outages because they've invested in wind and solar since the '70s, rather than hydropower. Heck, California had rolling blackouts in

Those are all niche products. Silicon Valley and the like have been trying to make bioenergy (green energy) viable for years. Any successful efforts have been small in scale. Geothermal has been moderately successful where it's available. You can't transport geothermal generated energy from Bose, Montana, or The Geysers in California, very far.

Thank you, Mesozoic and Cenozoic.

You'll need to support that statement.

Once since 2001. That's pretty damn rare.

California has plenty of Hydro, pretty much all that is available in the state particularly considering that it gets no rain for 7 months straight and has periodic periods of drought.

It actually does quite well producing sufficient power for the population, as you seem to have your facts incorrect.

The issues that exist (public safety power shutdowns during fire season) have nothing to do with type of energy mix or availability of energy.

You can't transport

That's, of course, incorrect as they're tied into the regional grid systems.

Please read more carefully. Public Safety Power Shutdowns, or PSPS, as they are termed, are done to anticipate or act during downed powerlines, due to wind or fire. I am talking about rolling blackouts due to insufficient power capacity, not PSPS. Completely different.

There's not enough capacity due to growth. New homes have higher power demands. Older homes power services are being upgraded to accommodate more technology, including supplying plug-in cars. I've had to upgrade two homes.

Yes, that's true, but that doesn't serve many, "far away". It's a nich.

It will only get worse in California. PSPS are a result of environmentalism, and inadequate supply is a result of growth and an incompetent PUC. Well, more of being mobbed up/lobby controlled, than incompetence.

Please read more carefully. There's been one, count them, one single occurance of a rolling blackout in the last 19 years (since 2001). And the current heatwave is unprecedented. And a couple of generators went off-line unexpectedly.

Production capacity is more than sufficient, with more coming on-line every day.

Geothermal only works if you have it. Bio energy is still burning stuff and that is dirtier than natural gas. Solar only works in the day time and wind only works when the wind is blowing (again only in suitable locations). The infrastructure cost for both of those is very high. I suppose it gets down to how much you want to pay for your electricity. We like our 11-12 cents a KWH. Those others are typically much more and usually they still need to be supplemented by Natural Gas or something worse.

How many acres of land was contaminated? How many birds washed up on the beach dead? How many square miles of the ocean was contaminated with oil? You know what I mean, you just want to be contrary and I bet

You are right. You did hear about a gas spill, you win.

I don't know about them. Germany just said this alternate energy is nice and all but we need a viable backup. US, please piss off.

Yeah when its 90 and you are sitting in the dark it is a distinction without a difference. If you have medical equipment that needs power for you to stay alive or just get your water from a well, it is more serious than that.

Germany is soon to be piping Russian gas directly across the Baltic. They must think it is worth something to them.

A lot of smoke and mirrors in those claims.

"How the net-zero goals will be accomplished is unclear. Some countries may bet on technological advances to capture carbon, which would allow them to continue drilling for oil and gas. Others could seek to offset their emissions by buying credits for green projects like tree-planting programs. "

The ironic part of the tree thing is 3d world leaders will put trees into the program that they really don't have any control over, taking the credit money and the locals will either forgo expanding their farm or cut the damned tree down anyway, knowing nobody will catch them. I wonder how many times they sell the same tree?

How can you be so wrong about everything? Do you actually read scientific journals and magazines, or do you just listen to Rush Gasbag?

Funny about all those geothermal heat pumps people use to heat their homes.

Bio energy is no different from any other fossil fuel (and yes, one can create natural gas from biofuel precursors which burns with the same cleanliness as geological CH4.

It also is carbon neutral, which you conveniently left out of your diatribe.

Of course, that's why so many storage projects exist or are underway - whether pumped storage, batteries or flywheels, the excess generated during daylight hours can be shifted to non-daylight hours.

Which in many locations is overnight when solar isn't generating. So it balances out; wind at night, solar at day.

May have been true 20 years ago, but definitely not true today.

I'm sure you do. At the expense of the rest of the worlds future.

Ignoring the lack of suitable deep water ports for US LNG tankers, they may think Russian gas has a lot less strings.

A ground source heat pump may mitigate fossil fuel use but it is not geothermal.

How do you get that bio mass? Cutting down trees? That is the most common mass production source. They clear cut a forest to burn it.

Let me know when that actually becomes viable in any real sense.

Two unreliable sources do not equal a reliable one. Most of these projects are more effective in fleecing the taxpayer than they are at solving the energy problem. They don't actually last that long either.

Something got cheaper? what was it? I agree we have sent our solar collector process off to China but what is the real cost?

You must be pissed because you live in a place with a lousy power company that charges you a lot more.

I didn't know Germany had that port shortage. Maybe that is why they kept invading France. ;-)

It's never made economic sense, and the US is all about economics, right?

Germany has always had port envy. Getting out of the Baltic with people shooting at you is a bitch and even the North Sea has its problems. The restrictions on the fleet after Versailles were met with a shrug and "well we never did have much of a navy anyway.' It was actually a good thing since it turned their minds to small, fast raiders rather than the soon to be obsolete behemoths.

Have you never looked at a simple map? I refer you to google maps.