Global Warming Examiner

While Natural Gas Production Increases, Company Stock Prices May Not

One way to lower carbon dioxide emissions and clean up our air is to substitute natural gas for coal. Coal has almost twice the carbon emissions for the same amount of electricity produced as natural gas, not even counting the releases of mercury and other toxic byproducts from burning coal. Substituting natural gas for coal would be an intermediate step in reducing carbon emissions and give us time to develop more 'perfect' renewable resources like wind and solar. All the government has to do is prohibit the construction of new coal plants and start restricting emissions from existing plants.

Peak Oil Stocks for the Future

I agree with Brahm here. It does not make sense that the author wants to 'protect' our environment by not drilling ANWR, but suggests coal to liquids which would release tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide. These types of plants can't get funding because the investors realize that future carbon emission limitations might prevent them from operating the plants for their expected lifetimes and they are not going to risk losing the huge investments required. It is even difficult now to fund a coal-fired power plant for the same reason.

We should have a plan to reduce greenhouse emissions and it should start with cutting back on fuels like coal that have the highest carbon emissions for the energy produced. Oil should be in the mix of fuels we use now until we can produce all of our energy from alternative fuels. I have a web site on Global Warming (examiner.com/x-325-Gl... where I discuss how the mix of fuels affects our environment. So called environmentalists who are against any type of fossil fuel production are actually making the global warming situation worse. We are not producing enough new alternative energy to even meet increasing demand, much less replace existing fossil fuel consumption. I could take 40 years to switch to alternative fuels. To suggest that everything will change in a few years is not reasonable. 'All we need is hope' will not put gas in the tank.

Not producing oil from ANWR hurts us economically, about $1 trillion dollars that we will import from foreign countries. It hurts our trade balance which hurts the value of the dollar. It causes industry to move off-shore to countries like China that pollute worse than we do. It hurts the people in Alaska who won't get the tax revenue for their state endowment fund. It hurts everyone who has to pay higher prices for gasoline (special thank you to Bill Clinton), and can't buy an alternative energy vehicle this year. It's not just ANWR, but also all of the oil and gas resources off our coast that can't be utilized.

Drilling in ANWR will only require about 2,000 acres out of 1.2 million acres in the reserve. A lot of infrastructure like the Alaska pipleline is already in place. Some of the time-line estimates include the time to fight the legal challenges. This supply could come on faster than some of the estimates.

I am actually very bullish on natural gas producers. Replacing all of our coal plants with natural gas would cut the emission of carbon dioxide from electric generation in half. But it is not going to happen in 3 years. This would be a huge infrastructure investment in new gas wells and pipelines. Maybe in 30 years, a little at a time. Some of that natural gas may come from ANWR.

Natural Gas: The Alternative Clean Energy Investment

You are spot on about Natural Gas. It is the bridge fuel to the future of carbon free energy. Natural Gas has the lowest amount of carbon for each unit of energy. It is cleaner than oil or coal. There is still abundant amounts available in this country. We have a robust distribution system for delivering Natural Gas already in place. We should be substituting Natural Gas for gasoline and diesel for our transportation by developing new hybrid power systems that run on Natural Gas (Gas turbine / electric generator).

In addition to Natural Gas producers, I like companies like Kinder Morgan Partners (KMP) that distribute Natural Gas.