Study: Using Natural Gas Will Do Little to Solve Climate Change

Although there are large pools of natural gas to draw from in the United States, it will do little to help solve the problem of climate change, according to a newly published study by UC Irvine researchers and other experts.

The problem is the cheap gas encourages more electricity consumption at the expense of expanding more renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, according to the study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

The UCI scientists teamed up with experts at Stanford University and the nonprofit group Near Zero for the study.

“In our results, abundant natural gas does not significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions,” said Christine Shearer, a postdoctoral scholar in Earth system science at UCI and lead author of the study. “This is true even if no methane leaks during production and shipping.”

Relying on natural gas postpones more research and use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, according to the scientists. Their research indicates that reliance on natural gas could actually boost carbon emissions between 2013 and 2055 by 5 percent, or, in a best-case scenario, reduce the pollution by 9 percent, Shearer said.

“Natural gas has been presented as a bridge to a low-carbon future, but what we see is that it’s actually a major detour,” Shearer said. “We find that the only effective paths to reducing greenhouse gases are a regulatory cap or a carbon tax.”

Steven Davis, an assistant professor of Earth system science at UCI who was the study’s chief investigator, drew an analogy to a poor diet.

“Cutting greenhouse emissions by burning natural gas is like dieting by eating reduced-fat cookies,” Davis said. “It may be better than eating full- fat cookies, but if you really want to lose weight, you probably need to avoid cookies altogether.”

— City News Service