Comment box Scope: personal take Tone: neutral Opinion: none Sarcasm/humor: none Williams has a very funny style. And wow, 40 minutes of natural gas talk. Nice listen. Always thought it was funny...
Comment box
Scope: personal take
Tone: neutral
Opinion: none
Sarcasm/humor: none
Williams has a very funny style. And wow, 40 minutes of natural gas talk. Nice listen.
Always thought it was funny that people get worked up about EV batteries occasionally catching on fire, but have no issue piping their entire house with highly flammable methane 24/7. Glad I don't. Happy with my (green) electricity.
In the place I lived 15-20 years ago when fracking was becoming a thing, there was a lot of local resistance to it, but the "climate angle / bridge fuel" pitch he talks about aligns with the discussions I remember. I'm personally rather concerned with human health, not just climate change, and coal burning is uniquely awful for human health; far more than methane gas. Obviously neither is good, but it's easier to convince people to switch fuels because the current fuel visibly gives you cancer and the other one doesn't, or at least doesn't do it anywhere nearly as quickly. Climate change at that time was kind of intangible. These days, there is more awareness.
In December 2023, the EPA under Biden did issue stricter regulations on wasteful methane gas emissions, which should reduce the profitability of current practices. Williams does not mention this. I think the criticism of lax government oversight is very warranted, but things are changing for the better because of who we elected president in 2020. :/ Here is text from a summary of the rule:
It will yield significant climate and health benefits for all Americans by achieving historic reductions in methane pollution, as well as smog-forming VOCs and toxic air pollutants like benzene and toluene. The rule will avoid an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions from 2024 to 2038. That’s nearly 80 percent less than projected methane emissions without the rule. The rule will also avoid 16 million tons of smog-forming VOC emissions and 590,000 tons of air toxics.
It's possible I'm misreading this document, but "80% reduction in methane emissions" is a pretty big deal.
It's pretty hard to pivot from gas in 4 months. Longer-term, within a timescale of 5 of so years, is a different story. On a residential and even moderate-industrial scale, modern electric heat pumps are remarkably efficient, work at lower temperatures than people seem to believe, and are not that expensive. I believe him that LNG production is rising, and that's definitely bad. I think he has right to be fiery and upset. The administration is definitely too supportive of natural gas, but it isn't gaining market share on renewables. Renewables are gaining on natural gas.
And as he says around 34:00, the current administration has made a particular effort to halt future LNG expansion. Combined with the EPA's new wasteful emissions rule, there is a lot of progress on this issue. The satellite-based "real leak monitoring" system he mentions at the end is also exciting. I posted an article in November about a new NASA satellite that has this job, and is doing much better at detecting leaks than originally expected.
Comment box
Williams has a very funny style. And wow, 40 minutes of natural gas talk. Nice listen.
Always thought it was funny that people get worked up about EV batteries occasionally catching on fire, but have no issue piping their entire house with highly flammable methane 24/7. Glad I don't. Happy with my (green) electricity.
In the place I lived 15-20 years ago when fracking was becoming a thing, there was a lot of local resistance to it, but the "climate angle / bridge fuel" pitch he talks about aligns with the discussions I remember. I'm personally rather concerned with human health, not just climate change, and coal burning is uniquely awful for human health; far more than methane gas. Obviously neither is good, but it's easier to convince people to switch fuels because the current fuel visibly gives you cancer and the other one doesn't, or at least doesn't do it anywhere nearly as quickly. Climate change at that time was kind of intangible. These days, there is more awareness.
In December 2023, the EPA under Biden did issue stricter regulations on wasteful methane gas emissions, which should reduce the profitability of current practices. Williams does not mention this. I think the criticism of lax government oversight is very warranted, but things are changing for the better because of who we elected president in 2020. :/ Here is text from a summary of the rule:
It's possible I'm misreading this document, but "80% reduction in methane emissions" is a pretty big deal.
It's pretty hard to pivot from gas in 4 months. Longer-term, within a timescale of 5 of so years, is a different story. On a residential and even moderate-industrial scale, modern electric heat pumps are remarkably efficient, work at lower temperatures than people seem to believe, and are not that expensive. I believe him that LNG production is rising, and that's definitely bad. I think he has right to be fiery and upset. The administration is definitely too supportive of natural gas, but it isn't gaining market share on renewables. Renewables are gaining on natural gas.
And as he says around 34:00, the current administration has made a particular effort to halt future LNG expansion. Combined with the EPA's new wasteful emissions rule, there is a lot of progress on this issue. The satellite-based "real leak monitoring" system he mentions at the end is also exciting. I posted an article in November about a new NASA satellite that has this job, and is doing much better at detecting leaks than originally expected.