There’s Nothing Natural About Natural Gas

"Natural gas: the bridge to a clean energy future!" Nice sound bite. But the reality is that natural gas is nothing but a bridge to more natural gas -- and with it more water contamination, air pollution, global warming, and fractured communities.

March 31, 2011 | Source: Alternet | by Jennifer Krill

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“Natural gas: the bridge to a clean energy future!” Nice sound bite. But the reality is that natural gas is nothing but a bridge to more natural gas — and with it more water contamination, air pollution, global warming, and fractured communities.

The natural gas industry, joined in good faith by some environmentalists, touts natural gas as a “bridge fuel,” cleaner burning than coal and less destructive to extract, a way to transition to a renewable energy economy. But communities across America — from the Rocky Mountains to Texas, Pennsylvania, and New York — know this is a false choice. Just like coal, the drilling, processing, and transport of natural gas is dirty and dangerous. And new research calls into question natural gas’s advantage over coal in terms of global warming pollution when the full life cycle (from extraction to transport to use) is considered.

Due to advances in “hydraulic fracturing” (commonly known as “fracking”), America’s gas fields are no longer “somewhere else”: They’re right next door. Chances are good they’re right upstream from you.