Just How Clean is Natural Gas?

Many people tout natural gas is a “clean fuel”. And there’s no doubt that it’s much cleaner than coal.

But just how clean is it? Is running our homes and cars on natural gas as eco-friendly as we think?

Well, like most things, the answer is a bit complicated.

The Benefits of Natural Gas

Natural gas is probably the cleanest of all the fossil fuels we use because, when burned, it emits less carbon dioxide per joule than oil or coal.

Another great thing about natural gas is that it’s 100% American. We have a ton of this stuff, which means we don’t have to import this energy. Less transportation=less carbon footprint.

Side Effects of Natural Gas Drilling

There are, however, some pretty nasty side effects to natural gas.

For instance, The National Wildlife Federation recently published an incredibly enlightening feature on natural gas. And they report that over 5,000 new natural gas wells have been dug out in northwestern Colorado between 2000-2008.

And, that’s just in Northwest Colorado.

All told, there has been over 120,000 new wells dug in the past decade; all of them are out West.

The landscape now looks like the suburban sprawl outside of a major city like Dallas or Los Angeles. There are roads, infrastructure and huge swaths of land simply cut away to make room for piping and trucks.

Getting natural gas out of the ground is also devastating for the environment. The process used is called hydrolic fracking, and it pollutes groundwater. It’s also not regulated, at all, by the government. The reason is because of “Halliburton’s Loophole“, which was put into the 2005 Clean Water Act by, you guessed it, Dick Cheney.

This loophole allows gas regulars to escape any kind of oversight or regulation on the water they’re using to pump out the natural gas. This polluted water goes right back into our streams, lakes and rivers. Drillers also don’t have to report their toxic emissions to the EPA. Ever.

Last Word…

Natural gas might burn clean. But getting it out the ground so we can use it is definitely not clean.

What we need is some kind of government oversight to hold drilling companies accountable for their wastewater runoff and the chemicals they’re pumping into the ground. If you’d like to get involved, head over to Food and Water Watch; there’s a petition going to convince Senators and Congressional Reps to close Halliburton’s Loophole so that they can be held accountable for their drilling practices, and the harm they’re causing to the environement.