more news on impending gas shortage in asia, page-2

Domestic Natural Gas Usage Should Increase

It would be a very effective answer if we could shift over to using more natural gas, where supplies are extremely abundant thanks to the new shale plays. On an BTU equivalent basis, natural gas is also dirt cheap, welling for the equivalent of less than $30 a barrel.

Natural gas-powered vehicles are a well-tested technology, and are in use around the world...why not here? Both Ford (F) and GM already make them, they just don't sell them here. It would even be possible to have a "gas station" at home if you already have gas for cooking or heating.

Yes, there are some potential environmental problems with shale gas, most notably potential groundwater contamination. However, those potential problems are very small relative to the environmental disaster which is coal. Not only does coal produce about twice as much CO2 as gas per BTU, is also creates massive amounts of fly ash that are left in huge piles near power plants. Last year, one of the dams holding back fly ash broke in Tennessee and cause one of the largest environmental disasters ever in the lower 48 states.

Coal also spew all sorts of other very nasty stuff into the atmosphere, including mercury, lead and arsenic. Clean coal would be nice, but then again it would be nice to catch a leprechaun and get his pot of gold. That's not going to happen because leprechauns don't exist, and neither does "clean coal." The administration's infatuation with clean coal is just plain silly, or just something that helps keep Senators Rockefeller and Byrd happy.


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