Take this commercial by the Houston-headquartered multi-billion-dollar Spectra Energy as an example. In just a two-and-a-half minute attempt to woo people to NG, they actually make 15 claims that don't hold water. In a world facing global climate woes, exploding population, dependence on foreign energy and inflation -- what should we do? Turn to NG, according to Spectra. But here's where their reasoning is just plain wrong.
1. Industry claim: "Natural gas is clean."
TRUTH: Here the industry is carefully trying to pull the wool over our eyes. You can't just talk about burning gas versus oil once it's in the furnace in your house; you have to look at the entire lifecycle of gas. The lifecycle cost of NG in terms of carbon dioxide and methane emission during its exploration, extraction, processing, and transportation to point of use, is no better than that of oil or coal and may even be higher than that of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
2. Industry claim: "Natural gas is the cleanest-burning conventional fuel."
TRUTH: Nope. See 1 and 3.
3. Industry claim: "Natural gas produces less
carbon dioxide than coal or oil (45 percent less than coal, 30
percent less than oil)."
TRUTH: See number 1. Also, methane is 20-25 times more
potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, meaning it's that
much more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere.
According to the
U.S. Energy
Information Administration:
Methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and water vapor are the major greenhouse gases associated with the production, transmission, processing, storage, distribution, and use of natural gas. Emissions of these gases associated with natural gas, excluding water vapor, were about 20 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2007 (in carbon dioxide equivalent). Methane, the main component of natural gas, is released directly to the atmosphere when it leaks from natural gas wells and pipelines and processing and storage facilities. These methane emissions in 2007 were the source of about 25% of total U.S. methane emissions, but only 2.7% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
And:
Carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and water vapor are produced when natural gas is burned. Some CO2 is also released when it is removed from natural gas. Carbon dioxide emissions associated with natural gas in 2007 were about 21% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 17% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (excluding water vapor).
4. Industry claim: "Natural gas is
domestically available."
TRUTH: This is technically true, but at a very
heavy cost domestically. And because it's more lucrative in the
current market to sell abroad, much of that domestic gas will
end up being sold to other countries. Besides this, any gas that
is added to the domestic market will not be replacing foreign
oil or domestic coal or nuclear power; it will just be added to
the energy grid.
Thirty-four states sit on gas; many of them have parts that have
already been transformed into industrial wastelands. Do we want
this for more states, such as New York, which is one of the next
states on the chopping block? Or would we not be better off
creating jobs in the renewable-energy sector and transitioning
off fossil fuels now, while we still have a chance to slow (and,
optimistically, maybe even halt) catastrophic global climate
change?
Beyond this, nobody in the U.S. is going to get cheaper
electricity or fuel because it's "domestic." Gas companies have
pulled a bait-and-switch in coastal states, where
gas pipelines were often originally permitted because the
pipeline companies claimed to be putting them in place for
import of NG. Yet once the permits were received and the
pipelines laid, the industry revealed its true colors: much of
this domestic NG will end up being exported because the price
abroad is much better than the prices at home.
5. Industry claim: "Ninety-eight percent of all
natural gas consumed in North America is produced within the
continent."
TRUTH: In 2009, net U.S. imports of NG were down, but
they still represented 12 percent of total consumption. Canada
and Trinidad and Tobago are the largest exporters of NG to the
United States. Egypt almost tripled its exports to the U.S. in
2009 and remains the second largest source of liquid NG. At the
same time, the U.S.
exports NG mainly to Japan and Mexico, and in 2009 added
South Korea to its list of NG export customers.
6. Industry claim: "Natural gas is abundant."
TRUTH: It is abundant, but its presence
hundreds and thousands of feet beneath the surface, trapped in
tiny bubbles within naturally fractured shale, means its
extraction is dangerous, dirty and foolhardy. Its high
life-cycle greenhouse gas footprint means it will contribute
mightily to further catastrophic global climate change, at a
time when the universal consensus among the world's leading
scientists demonstrates that we must halt our greenhouse gas
emissions before it's too late.
7. Industry claim: "Enough natural gas has been
discovered to supply North America for well beyond 100 years."
TRUTH: No one really knows exactly how much
natural gas exists until it is extracted. The U.S. Energy
Information Administration estimates there are "2,587 trillion
cubic feet (Tcf) of technically recoverable natural gas in the
United States." The Potential Gas Committee estimates "total
U.S. natural gas resources at just over 1,836 Tcf." Currently
the U.S. uses 22,739 million cubic feet of natural gas per year.
That means, if these rough estimates are right (and there is no
way of knowing how right they are), the gas would last, at
current consumption levels, between 80 and 113.76 years in the
United States, but this excludes the other two countries that
make up North America, Mexico and Canada.
8. Industry claim: "Natural gas usage is becoming even
more efficient."
TRUTH: Maybe so in its in-building use, but
we're decades away from technologies making it efficient enough;
meanwhile, its usage is not attractive enough to warrant killing
people and ecosystems, and poisoning our environment and
landscapes, to get to it. And it is highly inefficient in its
leakage of methane and other greenhouse gases during extraction
and transportation.
9. Industry claim: "Natural gas is reliable."
TRUTH: We can certainly rely on the fact that
fracking will poison air, water, soil, food supplies and people;
that there will be accidents that cause damage to property and
kill people; and that its exploration, extraction, and related
processes around the world will add untold amounts of greenhouse
gases to the atmosphere, hastening catastrophic global climate
change.
10. Industry claim: "Natural gas can be counted
on as a primary fuel as well as the most reliable backup to
renewable energies. Natural gas is there when the wind doesn't
blow or the sun doesn't shine."
TRUTH: This is a moot point. Battery systems
are available to store the energy produced by wind power when
the wind isn't blowing and by solar power when the sun isn't
shining (such as at night). And other renewable energy
resources, such as geothermal, don't have the environmental
risks associated with gas; in fact, there are few if any risks
associated with geothermal technologies.
11. Industry claim: "Natural gas is versatile"
(heats, cools, provides electricity and transportation, is a
main ingredient in a wide variety of products).
TRUTH: It's not the only choice we have, and we
don't need to use it, and would be better off not using it, as
an ingredient in textiles, cosmetics, home cleaning products,
children's toys, clothing, baby bottles, and food.
12. Industry claim: "Natural gas is safe."
TRUTH: Tell that to the thousands of people
around the country whose health has been adversely affected, and
the many who have been killed in explosions and other accidents
related to drilling for gas. (See number 13.)
13. Industry claim: "North America's continental gas
pipeline system is the safest mode of energy transportation in
the world today."
TRUTH: In a quick survey over the last decade
alone there have been dozens and dozens of accidents with NG
that have resulted in destroyed homes, catastrophic fires, and
loss of life. On August 19, 2000 a natural gas pipeline rupture
and fire near Carlsbad, New Mexico,
killed
12 members of a family who were camping some 600 feet from
the rupture. The pipeline, operated by El Paso Natural Gas
Company, was found to be badly corroded; the company's
"corrosion control program failed to prevent, detect, or control
internal corrosion within the company's pipeline," and
government inspectors had not identified the deficiencies.
Most recently on September 9, 2010 in San Bruno, California,
just south of San Francisco a 54-year-old high-pressure
gas pipeline exploded at dinner time killing eight people
and injuring many more, destroying 38 homes, damaging 120 homes
and burning 10 acres of brush.
14. Industry claim: "Because NG is safe and
efficient, it is used in [a high percentage of] restaurants,
hospitals, offices, etc."
TRUTH: It is used in restaurants, hospitals,
etc., because it is cheaper than oil, has been considered
cleaner than oil and coal (because of high investment by Big Gas
in marketing and lobbying), and because there have been and are
few options outside fossil fuels for these big institutions to
use for electricity, heating and cooling.
Besides, "per-customer consumption [of NG] fell in 16 out of the
past 19 years. On a weather-adjusted basis, U.S. residential
consumption over the 19-year period (1990- 2009) fell from 95
thousand cubic feet (Mcf) per customer in 1990 to 74 Mcf in
2009, or 22 percent,"
according to the U.S. Energy Administration’s Independent
Statistics and Analysis report.
15. Industry claim: "Natural gas is needed
now."
TRUTH: What is needed are clean, renewable,
non-fossil-fuel energy systems if we are to halt catastrophic
global climate change, protect our ecosystems, protect our
precious fresh water supplies, protect our health, and keep any
more states, like New York, from becoming an industrial
wasteland.
Originally published at: http://www.alternet.com