Reply #46: You so misread me...

[Bob Wallace]

Going to have to hire you a guide to Bob.

I've got no natural gas bandwagon, no matter how loud you shout.

I'm just observing what is happening in the real world and figuring out how we get from a grid heavily fed by fossil fuels to a grid based on renewable energy.

From a pure fuel stance, natural gas looks to be the route we are taking. NG releases less CO2 per unit electricity than does coal. NG plants are fully dispatchable, which coal is not. NG plants are relatively cheap to build which means that they, unlike new coal or nuclear, can be profitably operated without selling power 24/365.

Fracking is a problem for sourcing some natural gas. It is a significant problem which needs to be solved. And solving it will help the transition to renewables because it will make fuel more expensive, thus making storage a more attractive financial option.

70% of Americans want zero carbon (shouting removed) energy sources. But not to the extent that they have put enough pro-renewable officials into Congress to make it happen via legislation. We apparently will not get from a coal-dominated grid to a clean grid by wave of magic wand. That means that the route won't be as 'perfect' as most of us would like but haven't figured out how to implement.