Natural Gas is not the Answer

   Utah should pull the plug on its natural gas production. The gas is not environment-friendly, as advertised, and extracting it from the earth often comes with fracking, which affects the geological balance beneath the earth. 

  Utah is a major petroleum-producing state, consistently ranking in the top 15. Natural gas is part of that, with Utah having the largest natural gas reserves in the Rocky Mountains. If we expand our development of our natural gas reserves, it will open jobs. It will financially benefit our Native American reservations. It will pour money into our education coffers, since much of the production is on trust lands, where taxes are earmarked for education. 

  A gold mine, Utah is sitting on, should it choose to use it. 

  Nor let it go unnoticed that natural gas produces 50-60 less carbon emissions. In a world concerned about reducing green house emissions, cutting them in half is a notable improvement. The argument is, that natural gas is a win-win, good for the economy and good for the environment.

  But is it? Listen to this reply:

  "We need to be very clear here: Natural gas is not a clean form of energy," says the Climate Reality Project. "Cleaner than coal? Sure -- but that's not saying a heck of a lot. Clean like solar or wind? Get out of here!"

  Indeed, if you study natural gas long enough, your learn it not only leaves us with half the carbon dioxide problem, but it exacerbates the problem of methane in the atmosphere, what with methane being the prime component of natural gas.  While most of the methane leaves the atmosphere in 20 years or less, while the methane is there, it traps heat like 90 times worse than carbon dioxide. Recently -- just this past year -- scientists discovered that perhaps 40 percent more methane in the atmosphere is coming from industrial production than previously thought. In the past, they believed that methane in the atmosphere was more from natural causes, such as cattle manure. Now, knowing more is from man-made causes, it means we should be able to control it more. Natural causes might be hard to cut, but man-made ones can be corrected.

   Cutting natural gas use, then, is one of the things we can do to reduce methane in our skies. 

   We must not bow to the pressure to pour money in our education coffers. And, yes it is good to create jobs. And, bless the Native American reservations.

   But, no, natural gas is not a good solution. Climate change is gaining greater acceptance. Most are realizing it is for real. Natural gas only continues it. We cannot -- should not -- let the temptation to chase after a false solution bring us to extending the dangers of climate change.

   Oh, and I forgot one thing: The fracking and such that accompanies natural gas extraction unsettles our geo plates. In addition to ground water being in danger of being polluted, earthquakes can result. Though they have pointed to small ones and been connected to a limited number of reasonably large ones, as of yet, I cannot help but wonder that if you crack underground plates of ground, if you disturb the weight upon them and below them, if the change in pressure and the bending of the plates could be at least a little bit of a factor in our having so many earthquakes in this age. 

(Index -- Climate change info)