As reported Sunday, a spokesman for the mining industry recently told the Herald, “There’s no question that it’s government intervention in energy markets that is primarily to blame for the decline in coal’s share of electricity generation.”
Blame? More like credit. That coal’s share is shrinking is good news. And if government action is responsible, well, it is good to see the government getting it right. The U.S. Energy Information Administration monthly report for April showed that for the first time natural gas passed coal to become the No. 1 fuel used in generating electricity in the United States. In April, gas accounted for 31 percent of all generation, while coal slipped to 30 percent. The other 39 percent is everything else, including wind, solar and hydroelectric sources.
That represents a significant turnaround. In April 2010, gas produced only 22 percent of the nation’s power, while coal generated 44 percent. (Comparing 2010 numbers with 2015 also shows a 5 percentage point increase in the “other” category, presumably reflecting more wind and solar power.)
In part, this is a result of the steady and continued improvement in the technology of gas drilling. This includes the ongoing explosion of computing power, as well as advances in fracking and horizontal drilling.
But much is also attributable to federal and state regulations. The Obama administration, through the Environmental Protection Agency, is working on a final rule to cut carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent by 2030.
And as powerplant operators have to know, even if the Obama plan is somehow rejected or modified, that is what the future looks like. For many, their best option has to be switching to natural gas. It is cheap and increasingly abundant.
Best of all, it burns cleanly. That not only makes it easier to meet whatever new air standards might apply, it results in cleaner operations overall, better public relations and happier neighbors.
Critics correctly point out that while gas burns cleaner than coal, combustion is not the whole story. The principal component of natural gas is methane, which is itself a powerful greenhouse gas. Leaks throughout the system – from drilling to refining to transportation – can allow enough methane to escape to make the total climate impact of gas rival that of coal.
That, however, is not an argument in favor of coal, but one that supports working to improve electrical efficiency continuing the shift to renewable energy – and increasing oversight of gas production in the meantime.
Methane leakage can be controlled or at least limited. But while coal can be made cleaner it can never be made truly clean. And, like natural gas, its effects are not limited to the burning of it.
Coal mining is itself dirtier than drilling for gas. So, too, is its handling and transportation. In some circumstances, mining coal is also terribly dangerous and destructive. There is also more to coal’s role in pollution than greenhouse gases. If the powerplants in northwest New Mexico had burned natural gas all these years, mercury would probably not be an issue for lakes in Southwest Colorado. It is now.
The ultimate solution to humanity’s energy needs has to be a combination of conservation, efficiency and renewable energy. And in that context, natural gas is not the answer.
But renewable energy is not yet sufficiently developed to dispense with fossil fuels entirely, and may not be for some time. There is no reason to keep burning coal in the meantime. An accelerating shift to natural gas is a reasonable and welcome next step.
