Natural gas has a place in the energy transition. But how big?

Hello and welcome to the AP Climate Watch newsletter. I’m Doug Glass, an editor with AP’s Climate and Environment team, and today I’d like to take you with me on a quick dip into the world of natural gas. It’s an energy source that, like every other fossil fuel, is critically important to consider as pressure mounts to cut the emissions that are heating Earth to dangerous levels.

Let’s start with that name. It’s not quite as benign as, say, organic strawberries, but “natural gas” likely hits most brains with a built-in advantage thanks to the subtle halo of that word “natural.” And many people may perceive it as better still next to coal and oil, two fossil-fuel peers that have generated things like acid rain, particulate pollution, black lung disease, environment-fouling spills and so forth even as they drove essential industrial and human progress.

That’s not lost on the big energy companies under pressure to figure out a future world that burns less – a LOT less – of the legacy fuels that make up most of their business. It’s why many of them have sustainability plans that still?describe natural gas as a “transition fuel” and a “bridge fuel” to a clean-energy future, and give it a big place in those plans.

Is natural gas cleaner than coal? Yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s clean. Burning natural gas still emits plenty of pollutants, and results in planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. Its use also results in leaks of methane, which is a far more powerful agent for warming.

Is natural gas cleaner than coal? Yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s clean.

And that’s why so much attention was paid last month to President Joe Biden’s decision to delay consideration of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals in the United States. Environmental groups think building out such infrastructure effectively locks in the future burning and leaking of?a whole lot of planet-warming natural gas.

There’s also an equity component . Most existing LNG terminals in the United States?are in communities of color and low-income areas that environmentalists say already bear the brunt of the climate crisis.

Biden’s move has plenty to do with his re-election hopes, where young voters are critical for him and many were upset by his approval of the massive Willow oil project last year in Alaska. Pausing the process on the LNG terminals may not bring those voters back. But Biden is clearly trying to make sure he won’t lose any more of them.

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This newsletter was written by Douglas Glass , an editor for climate and environment, and produced by climate engagement manager Natalia Gutiérrez .

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