Eliminating natural gas

Reducing green house carbon emissions is critically important, but those wanting to replace natural gas with all electric service would do well to study this, for if we were to implement this now, we would actually be burning more natural gas than we are now.

About 55% of California energy comes from nonpolluting sources; that is: solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal and nuclear, (which is included here for convenience.) Natural gas makes up the rest, about 45%.

To phase out direct natural gas usage, electrical generation would have to be ramped up as a replacement, but since all renewals are being currently used to their fullest, the only available resource for powering electric generating turbines is natural gas itself. One might think this would be a zero sum game, except that more than 40% of energy used for that purpose is lost in the conversion. Eliminating gas at this early stage would be counter productive, as we would be putting more pollutants into the atmosphere, not less.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, until more renewables are online, using gas is, in their words, “the ecological friendlier choice.”

In short, before we put the cart before the horse, we should first concentrate on developing clean energy alternatives.

Kent Lauder

Burlingame