Dirty Natural Gas:
Slightly Cleaner than your Average Fossil Fuel

Natural gas, also known as methane, has a reputation as a clean fuel. It is used in powerplants and buses and cars when low emissions at the point of use are desired. But this reputation is dangerous because it hides the environmental impacts somewhere else. Let's lift the rug and see what is under there.

Natural gas is no cleaner than the "clean coal" concept or nuclear energy. The problem is not where it is burned, but where it is extracted from the ground (and in nuclear's case, also where the waste products are put back in the ground). It is a convenient way for the user of the energy source to be a bad neighbor--and let someone else deal with the pollution.

So, why is natural gas so dirty? High Country News has quite a history of articles on the subject. The December 22, 2008 issue had a statistic that is very simple and powerful:

"This past summer, energy companies tested over 200 water wells within a mile of the gas fields in Wyoming's Sublette County, at the center of the West's gas boom; 23 percent were unsafe for drinking, according to EPA standards, and contaminated by hydrocarbons such as benzene and other pollutants..."

If something was contaminating 23 percent of the water wells where you live, wouldn't you want it to stop--or at least be done more carefully?

It shouldn't be a surprise that natural gas has problems--it is a fossil fuel. And like all fossil fuels, using them is an addiction that is hard to kick--especially when it is easy to ignore the side effects of the addiction. Now you know the negative effects of your natural gas habit--but will you do anything? As Tolstoy said:

"I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means--except by getting off his back."

Where does your natural gas come from? Does your gas company know that its suppliers are following best practices and being good neighbors? What if all their customers began asking?

Near Cody, Wyoming

Dirty Natural Gas: Slightly Cleaner than your Average Fossil Fuel

Dirty Natural Gas:
Slightly Cleaner than your Average Fossil Fuel