As high global CO2 levels and rising temperatures continue to pose environmental and economic risks, action must be taken to reduce emissions. World Bank data shows U.S. electricity consumption per capita has remained relatively flat over the past 10 years due to the rise of energy efficient technology. The key question is how we can reduce the carbon output of our energy needs. The easiest, most economical, and fastest way to cut down on greenhouse gasses is to continue to encourage the switch from coal to natural gas.
The switch has already been happening this past decade. According to the EIA in 2016, 33% of U.S. electricity generation came from natural gas and 30% came from coal compared to 2010, during which 20% electricity was produced by natural gas and 44% by coal. This huge shift would have never been possible without the technological revolution of horizontal drilling, aka fracking. The abundance of natural gas energy that drillers have been able to produce has lowered natural gas prices to the point of being more economical to build a natural gas powered electric plant than coal.
Obviously, wind and solar are very clean sources of energy, but these sources are nowhere near able to address our energy demand in an economical way. EIA stats show that wind and solar contributed only 5.6% and 0.9% respectively to electricity generation for 2016. Wind turbines also come with their environmental drawbacks, and according to EWEA, each one produces only 2.5-3 MW. A natural gas plant could generate typically anywhere in between 100-500 MW. It would take 100 wind turbines taking up tons of land in order to produce the same amount of power of a 300 MW natural gas plant.
Therefore, the logistics of cutting CO2 by getting rid of coal fired plants for natural gas are much more convenient than the more land intensive and costly wind and solar options. Natural gas produces about half the CO2 of coal. The current switch to gas has contributed to the fall in yearly CO2 emissions by about 1,000 million metric tons in the U.S. (EIA). In my view, Obama would have never tried to push the Clean Power Plan without knowing the potential of horizontal drilling and natural gas to make cleaner gas plants possible.
In no way am I advocating for this to be the long-term fix. Fracking does have its issues with the disposal of the wastewater that gets pumped out. Without proper treatment, toxic chemicals could get into public water systems. However, proper, tight safety regulations can resolve this problem.
While new solar and wind technologies like the Tesla solar roof or offshore wind take time to develop to become cost effective and widespread, we need to advocate pragmatic policy to reduce CO2 emissions through replacing coal with natural gas. Trying to merely ban fracking is impractical and will impede the U.S.’s ability to reduce emissions. There are environmental drawbacks to horizontal drilling, but sound regulation can prevent costly damage so that the strong benefits can be realized.