Natural gas, despite its GHG emissions and extractive nature, looks pretty good compared to coal. Thought leaders across a range of the environmental spectrum are agreeing that we should rely on natural gas to move us away from coal as we transition to widespread renewables.

Dan Reicher, Executive Director, Steyer-Taylor Center on Energy Policy and Finance, Stanford University said, "Globally there are immense supplies of natural gas, both conventional and unconventional," at the Cleanedge VC event last week. By unconventional, Reicher means shale gas.

Natural gas won some positive spin in Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.  "Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas," Obama said. "To meet this goal, we will need them all, and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen."

As reported by Michael Kanellos, "Natural gas is only kind of clean. Gas plants emit half of the emissions of coal plants, but far more than solar or wind...The gas industry has been clamoring to get included in a "clean" energy standard for the last two years.  The President's speech gives that the green light."  

Natural gas already provides 21 percent of U.S. electricity right now and the figure will rise to 40 percent by 2035, according to consulting and construction giant ...

In Reicher's words, "We need the combination of natural gas, renewable energy and energy efficiency," adding "We need to build this bridge between natural gas and renewables."

T. Boone Pickens claims that the United States has natural gas reserves that are equivalent to 700 billion barrels of oil and it is his personal crusade to move that ocean of natural gas into the American transportation sector.  He claims to have already spent $62 million on this quest, known as the Pickens Plan.

Bolder words were utterred by Vikram Rao, former CTO, Halliburton and the current Executive Director of RTEC (Research Triangle Energy Consortium). He said that the shale gas supply "is the most important energy event in the U.S. since the discovery of Alaskan oil." Rao saw the shale gas keeping a lid on natural gas prices because of the peculiarities of shale gas extraction.  He claimed that "once you have the lease you can produce gas very quickly -- in 180 days." That turn-around time will keep speculators away and therefore pricing will not spike according to Rao.  He also saw the water transport and contamination issue as solvable. (See below for some notes on the Marcellus Shale and its water issues.)

Andrew Littlefair, President and CEO of Clean Energy Fuels spoke of his firm's focus on natural gas in transportation. He said that "the low hanging fruit are the fleet vehicles" such as cabs, buses, and garbage trucks. He added that "Natural gas can compete with gasoline, no problem. It was a compelling environmental play but now its an economic play."  According to the CEO, there are 225 LNG and CNG stations in 25 states and "a lot of fleets are looking at this."
 
Carl Pope, Chairman of The Sierra Club spoke of coal and how utilities have powerful incentive to hold on to coal. Pope said, "Renewables and gas are fighting for table scraps while we should go after coal."  He urged, "Make sure that the Public Utility Commissions do not allow irrational investments in upgrading 50-year-old coal fired power plants."

Pope suggested, "Run the railroads on natural gas not diesel," "Run fleet vehicles on natural gas" and "Replace peakers with fuel cells."  He asked, "Can we power locomotives with fuel cells or natural gas? 
 
Pope finished his remarks by asking us to "Look at the system differently."  He said that the biggest missing ingredient is that there is no institution where consumers and utilities can communicate. "We need to create a place where that conversation can happen."

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/natural-gas-and-renewab...