Report: Cheap Natural Gas Leads to More Plants and Pollution

[NickB79]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/report-cheap-natural-gas-leads-plants-pollution-37287264

The Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project said hydraulic fracturing of shale rock formations and other advances, such as horizontal drilling, have made natural gas cheap and plentiful — so plentiful that the United States has begun exporting gas.

The watchdog nonprofit, which says its mission is to hold polluters accountable and champion environmental laws, is led by Eric Schaeffer, former director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Civil Enforcement.

Thanks to this energy boom, the group calculated that if 44 large-scale petrochemical developments proposed or permitted in 2015 were built they would spew as much pollution as 19 new coal-fired power plants would.

The report said all these projects potentially could pump about 86 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year. That would be an increase of 16 percent for the industry's emissions in 2014, the report found.

Someone please tell me again about how natural gas is a gateway fuel, a bridge to a clean-energy future, blah, blah, blah......

[valerief]

1. Natural gas is a gateway fuel to poisoned water, and, boy, will TPTB make money on that!!!! nt

[GliderGuider]

2. There is no such thing as a benign fossil fuel.

Or benign nuclear power, or benign hydro, or benign wind or solar power.
Certainly not at the scale it takes to run an 18 terawatt global civilization.