There is a great deal of confusion and controversy around the issue of the use and extraction of natural gas (methane). This page will explore this issue in greater detail.
Natural gas is obtained through the processes of drilling and Fracking (a slang term for hydraulic fracturing). The process of Fracking is an extremely harmful and damaging process that is described from the environment's point of view on this page.
Natural gas (methane) is 84 times more potent of a GHG emission than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period and 30 times more potent of a GHG emission over a 100 year period. This becomes a problem because natural gas infrastructure tends to leak. It is estimated that near-term greenhouse gas warming could be reduced by 30% if all natural gas leaks from pipelines were stopped.
In all, natural gas (methane) accounts for about 16% of all greenhouse gas emissions, coming from landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial processes, according to the US EPA, but other sources say the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas (methane) may be as high as 30%. Most of the natural gas (methane) leaks causing GHG emissions in the USA comes from the natural gas production, transmission, distribution, and storage infrastructure.
Natural gas is primarily extracted for 6 reasons: (1) for cooking, (2) for heating, (3) for powering of vehicles, (4) for electricity, (5) for generation of hydrogen energy, 6) for creating of plastics. These 6 uses are discussed (and alternatives proposed) below.
1. Cooking
A good friend in our community, well-known environmental professional and activist Laren Corie, recently wrote the following analysis of the use of natural gas for cooking:
On Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:21:48 AM she wrote:
Hi folks.
Cooking with methane (what their advertising departments want us to call “natural gas”) is dangerous to children and other living things.
Of course, it is a greenhouse gas that is 84 times as potent as CO2, but cooking with it also produces serious indoor air pollutants, introducing Carbon Monoxide and Nitrogen Dioxide.
If you are still cooking with this poisonous gas, consider changing over to electric. You can buy an efficient portable “induction” hob for as little as $35 (that one included a 10” stainless steel pot). A few years ago we purchased a couple of portable, single burner, “induction” hobs. We have been doing all our stove cooking on just one of them, ever since. “Induction” cooking is so fast that we have never needed to use the second one. Induction cooking does require using ferrous metal cookware, so we also bought a few pieces of stainless steel and iron cookware from GoodWill, so they would have a recycled carbon footprint, rather than that of newmade. They also cost a lot less.
As long as there is demand for methane, they will continue to frack and build more pipelines to satisfy their customers' demands. Do not be one of those reasons for them to continue. And, if you have children, please don't poison the air that they breathe.
There are reports on the health dangers of cooking with methane (so-called “natural gas”) from Rocky Mountain Institute, Sierra Club, etc.
2. Heating
Natural gas (methane) has traditionally and quite extensively been used in the United States and other places as well as a convenient method of heating. The natural gas can power a gas-powered furnace, which in turn heats water which then can flow through pipes to radiators which make the rooms of the house warm. If your house is warmed by radiators, then it is quite likely (in 2021) that it is being warmed with the use of natural gas.
A Rocky Mountain Institute study in 2018 found that with new construction housing, using electric heating is usually cheaper than using natural gas heating over the life of the appliance.
There is also a newer study in 2020 from the Rocky Mountain Institute with more up-to-date information, but with essentially the same conclusion that all electric homes are better for the environment.
Thanks again to Laren Corie, (retired) designer of solar and energy efficient homes since 1975, for these links. She also provided this information (below) for especially cold climates and also for improving the efficiency of existing constructions:
Here is an RMI article on heat pumps for cold climates. Some of the new mini-split heat pumps are officially rated to -22F and can operate at several degrees colder than that. Local heating system design temperatures around here are -5F or warmer, so these heat pumps can operate during anything we see including a Polar Vortex. These low temperature models are also more efficient at temperature down to our design temperature, than non-low-temperature models. A side benefit is that they are also more efficient, therefore cheaper to operate, for summer cooling..as much as three times as efficient.
Lastly....Another component of good new houses that are being built today Is high levels of energy efficiency. They are insulated far better, and they are sealed against undesirable air leakage. The interior of a home needs fresh air, but the insides of the exterior walls need to be blocked from excess moisture condensation (from interior and exterior) feeding mold, mildew, and rot. These healthy homes require only a small fraction of the energy of average existing American homes, or that of new homes that are built to today's relatively high code standards. The numbers (heat transfer calculations and real-world data) look good for these homes to be more economical than purchasing the typical new built homes that are being sold today. < https://rmi.org/zero-energy-homes/ > And, if (hopefully) there becomes a cost for carbon pollution, these advantages will become far greater.
Okay.........While building new homes to a much higher energy standard should be an easy choice, most homes will continue to be older, lower standard houses, for many years to come. These existing homes present a far greater challenge. There simply is no “one size fits all” solution for upgrading these existing structures. Each one needs its own unique plan, and defining such a plan will take expertise and usually testing, in order to optimize (or maybe just define) a cost-effective strategy. However....there are a few basic rules that have proven to hold true in virtually all cases. In our area that would include switching to renewable electricity, via solar roof panels, community solar, or third-party electric sellers. It also includes switching to efficient electric appliances whenever existing gas appliances fail (gas stove to induction, oven, clothes drier, water heater to heat pump, furnace to heat pump or at least to 95+% gas unit). Also, look into electric cars (new and used) being sure to talk with those who already drive them, because there is a lot of negative propaganda out there right now, that is extremely misleading. Add attic insulation. It is relatively cheap, effective, and safe for your home. If you are replacing you siding, consider adding rigid insulation (foam of rockwool) underneath it. Don't be fooled by contractors that want to install a nearly useless 1/4” thick layer. A full inch is way better, and usually does not change the procedure significantly. A thicker layer (2-4”) can make a big difference in energy efficiency, but will definitely add cost, and must be done carefully. If you are replacing windows, definitely go with low-E glass, and consider triple glazing. However, high-tech windows, that cost several times as much, are generally not the best use of your money. And....there are low cost, low tech solutions to window heat loss, that can start working right now, such as using layers of rigid foam over areas that do not need to be open. Most of our windows have significant areas that are covered by curtains, or blinds, or shutters, that provide us with privacy, but fail to block either (or both) unwanted heat loss and heat gain. Below is a picture of a window (n my house) that is older, so not even Low-E glass, that has a net Rvalue (Resistance insulation value) of approximately R6.5, which is like some of the most expensive high-tech windows. This window does it with low-tech solutions. One...it has a storm window, and two...there is an inch of polyisocyanurate foam behind the shutters. We use this same strategy on another window in our bathroom. An even simpler form of this strategy is to just cut full size rigid foam “plugs” to fit into the openings of windows in the unused rooms that many of us have. These can also be made attractive with simple cloth coverings, that can spray glued to the interior face, and easily pulled off to wash. Cover (insulate) your old basement windows. Insulating your hot water pipes can both reduce energy usage and hot water waiting times.
Laren Corie also gave us some more great advice on November 2, 2020, that I will also reprint here in case it is useful to a reader:
Attic insulation is cheap and also gets rebates. Now that the weather is getting cold, you can go around your rooms and feel for air leaks. Buy a good caulk gun and seal those air leaks. Wear warm winter clothing, so that you can turn your thermostat down, and stay warm. Turn it down at night. Fill a 2-liter soft drink type bottle with water. Put it in the microwave until it is hot (6-9 min) and use it as a bed warmer. There are literally thousands of ways to reduce your use of fossil fuels. Start with the ones that cost little or nothing. Let their cost savings pay for some other improvements that are low cost and payback fast. Use those savings to pay for more expensive improvements, or ones that take a little longer to payback. Make sure to look at your energy improvements as investments. Don't break the bank at the start with something that takes all your cash and won't payback for many years. There are many energy saving tactics that will payback a lot better than the stock market or other conventional investments. Do the math. Make it a game, an adventure. It is much more fun to do it than to just read about it.
Don't throw out the gas furnace, yet. Instead, look at ALSO having a heat pump. Maybe your option will be a whole house heat pump (needs to be inverter type (high SEER/HSPF) for best performance) or maybe you might opt for a mini-split that only heats your main floor rooms, maybe only during the fall, spring, and milder winter month, but also effectively cools both levels more efficiently than your current AC. Don't only look at the all-or-nothing options. And shop around the best price. Mini-splits are quite simple to install, and there are even DIY options, where you do most of the installation and have a pro do just the final connections.
There are several remedies for pipe freezing, that are more direct than heating the whole house to any particular temperature (I learned these things living in a log cabin in the Northern Michigan woods ;O) Heat tape, which is designed specifically to prevent pipe freezing, is very effective and costs very little to operate. Understanding where and when your pipes are at risk is also very good for being able to prevent freezing by simple turning a faucet to a few drips per minute. We still have no insulation in our unheated basement. However, we have only had one pipe freeze. It was not a pipe on the basement ceiling. They get warmed by the floor above them, and the simple fact that the warmest air stays up there between the joists. It was not a pipe in the middle of the basement, where it would have a “view” (for radiant heat transfer) from a lot of warm ceiling. It was not a pipe down in the warm ground under the floor. It was also not a pipe that was a hot water pipe, even if it had not moved warm water for a very long time, because those pipes, and the water in them, conduct a little heat along their length. It was one cold water pipe, dropping down (away from the ceiling) to our laundry tube, against the uninsulated outside concrete wall, a foot or two below ground level, on the north side (no sub) of the basement. And, the only time it froze was one morning, late in the Polar Vortex. As I recall, we didn't even put any heat to it, and just opened the faucet, to wait to hear it start running again, later in the day as things warmed. I am not saying that pipes freezing can not be a very serious problem, but it is not a universal problem. Get a cheap indoor/outdoor thermometer with memory and a sensor that you can tape to things like pipes. Play with it. It won't take long, at all, before you become an expert on your houses pipe temperatures, and what and where they might be at risk of freezing. Our furnace is turned off. We have no heat in our basement, but don't worry about our pipes freezing. If it gets colder than -20F, we will simply turn that one faucet to a slow drip.....simple.....easy.
BTW.....I ran multiple online discussion groups that were concerned with sustainability. I got the feeling that most people, once they learn to dress for it, find 62F to be the “magic” temperature that is their chosen balance between all factors.....
That concludes the advice from our community activist and friend Laren Corie for now and for this page for now. I think this would be a great place to add that we should pay and practice great respect for those in our land who have accumulated important knowledge and wisdom regarding more sustainable and Earth-friendly practices such as Indigenous people who have long practiced sustainability and harmony with the Earth and also others, White, Brown, European, or otherwise, who have also studied and accumulated this very important knowledge, and we should more seriously listen to these people and include them in greater capacity into our overall decision-making and/or political process, rather than those who are simply more popular or well-connected in our present-day society.
3. Transportation
According to a U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund Environment Research and Policy Center Frontier Group report written by James Horrox in October 2019 called “Electric Buses in America / Lessons from Cities Pioneering Clean Transportation”, it says on page 5 (Executive Summary), among other things, that electric powered buses “produce significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than diesel, diesel hybrid, and natural gas-powered buses”, which is based on a Union of Concerned Scientists 2018 study (see page 12). In fact, the greenhouse gas emissions produced from an electric bus was measured as less than half as that of a diesel or natural gas bus (page 12).
Also on pages 12-13, it also says “ New Flyer says that its natural gas-powered buses start at around $450,000 while their electric version starts at $700,000 ( footnote 45: New Flyer of America, Country's Largest Transit Bus System on Electric Buying Spree (press release), 17 October 2017). Over the lifetime of the bus, however, the company estimates the electric bus saves $400,000 in fuel expenses and $125,000 in averted maintenance costs more than making up for the higher upfront cost (footnote 46: ibid (same source as footnote 45, see above)).... even though electric transit buses today are still more expensive upfront than their diesel or natural-gas counterparts, they are often more affordable than fossil fuel buses in the long run since they have significantly fewer parts, no exhaust systems, their braking systems last longer, and they don't require oil changes or fossil fuels ( footnote 53: Proterra, The Proterra Catalyst 40-Foot Transit Vehicle, accessed 15 February 2018).
4. Electricity
Natural gas is not a renewable energy source so it will eventually run out. It doesn't make sense to use natural gas for electricity when it causes so many problems for the environment (due to the harmful extraction process of Fracking and the problem of resultant greenhouse gas emissions. Natural gas is methane, which is a 84 times worse of a greenhouse gas than carbon emissions. When natural gas is stored in tanks or when it is transported, there is almost always some that leaks out. This makes it a much inferior source of energy than renewable energy sources such as wind and hydro.
Also, by 2023, it is projected that solar and wind power will also be cheaper than natural gas for generating electricity. Therefore, it does not make sense to continue to use natural gas to produce electricity any more.
A friend of mine, David Kraft, made a great point to me in a recent E-mail that also supports the idea of a 100% renewable energy grid that uses no natural gas or nuclear power or other forms of dirty electricity:
"One of the more egregious pronouncements was that (paraphrase here) 'we don't have utility-scale storage available for the renewables.' That is a hugely out-of-date and erroneous claim. Here is an example of a site that is dedicated to energy storage. It will give you an idea of how far storage (and NOT just battery storage) has progressed, and why that claim is simply false and out of date.
"For example, 10 GW of storage written about below is the equivalent of 9 (N-I-N-E!) Byron-sized nuclear reactors -- all constructed in just one year! It takes more than a decade, and countless cost overruns to build just one nuclear plant. There are many other examples one could point to -- the TESLA facility built below budget and finished early in Australia; the fact that the Aussies are using wind power for desalination, and plan more of that (as well as hydrogen generation); etc.
"To be fair the energy field is a rapidly moving, changing and progressing one. And now -- after the Texas debacle -- you're gonna see a lot more significant changes, hopefully and finally in grid infrastructure, one which consciously begins the process of de-emphasizing the standard historic grid, and upgrading and replacing it to a 'smarter', more interconnected and redundant, distributed form -- which will be far more compatible to renewables interconnect."
5. Hydrogen Generation
Currently, natural gas is a major source for hydrogen generation. It appears that currently 95% of hydrogen fuel in America is being generated by natural gas. Hydrogen is typically used as a fuel for vehicles. However, hydrogen is losing the race against conventional electrical vehicles, and has been proven to be a more expensive method than using conventional electric vehicles. The only hydrogen cars commercially available in the United States are in California, such as the Toyoa Mirai, which sells for about $50,000. In contrast, you can get a used Nissan Leaf anywhere in the United States for around $10,000 - $15,000 from used car dealerships like CarMax.
Others maintain that hydrogen power may be needed for futuristic airplanes because non-hydrogen electric batteries in airplanes would be too big. However, these type of planes are still mainly in the research phase. I maintain that this is still just a research project, and that if it did come to fruition, then they should also figure out how to generate the hydrogen from fully 100% renewable sources instead of using natural gas. After all, generation techniques such as electrolysis, which could be as simple as placing two disparate metal leads into a tub of water, is a basis of electricity and hydrogen generation that can be developed further without any use of natural gas.
6. Plastics
Plastic material is a serious problem for a lot of reasons not just related to global warming. Plastic garbage in the ocean is becoming a serious problem and could seriously contribute a death in the oceans. Plastic doesn't breakdown and biodegrade well. All plastic materials, in my opinion, need to be eliminated from production and replaced by more Earth-friendly materials.
I believe that there needs to be a managed decline in plastics, natural gas extraction, and fossil fuel use. I believe we have the technology to do this, but not the political will, and it will take enormous participation of regular people in the political process to guide our government towards an adoption of these policies, and quickly, because this matter is urgent.
Conclusion
Natural gas is a fossil fuel. It no longer makes sense to actively continue to pursue to use natural gas for future uses. As can be seen above for each of the 6 uses, it makes more sense to use different methods for heating, cooking, transportation, electricity, hydrogen generation, and material generation for the reasons discussed above.
What should be done instead is to begin a managed, just transition away from all fossil fuels and towards renewable energy in the future. The age of fossil fuels needs to end. We need a managed, carefully orchestrated, just transition to a new future without dirty energy sources ASAP. Our time is running out due to the problem of global warming; we have a real climate emergency with very little time left, so this transition must occur ASAP.
This page last updated on 9/22/2024