Got Gas?
Date: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 @ 22:30:07 UTC
Topic: General
Oil isn't the only fossil fuel that's in crisis.
By Paul Roberts
Now that you've finally adjusted to spiking oil prices, here comes another energy crisis—in natural gas. In recent hearings before Congress, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan confirmed what energy traders have known for months: that prices for natural gas could top $6 per thousand cubic feet this summer—double the 2003 price and nearly three times the average price since 1980—and may soar even higher over the next four years.
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The gas markup will not only slow the U.S. economy and slam your wallet, it will also, perversely, delay the development of cleaner, renewable energy sources to replace oil and gas.
Natural gas doesn't attract the attention that oil does: U.S. consumers who reliably go ballistic over a 5 cent hike in gasoline are largely oblivious when natural gas prices jump. But natural gas should not be ignored. Today, natural gas—or just "gas," if you want to sound like an insider—accounts for nearly one-third of America's total energy use, and demand is going nowhere but up. Because gas is relatively clean-burning, it is popular as a heating fuel and is overtaking dirtier coal as the preferred fuel for generating electricity. (Read why it became so popular here.)
What's more, gas can be refined into other fuels, including a synthetic gasoline, and can be turned relatively easily into hydrogen, aka the Fuel of the Future. This is why gas is widely touted as a "bridge" fuel—that is, a cheap, existing energy source that could help the world gracefully shift from its current oil-based energy economy, with its massive environmental and political liabilities, to a cleaner, more stable system in the future. But that rosy scenario becomes harder to imagine with gas at $6...
Read the whole article at: Got gas?
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