Quote:
Originally Posted by GP_Matt
A rough pro and con list for Natural gas is that it is has lower emissions than oil or coal and is cheap and plentiful. I think it runs about half the cost of oil when looking at dollars per unit of energy and there is no apparent end to the amount of stuff in the ground.
Cons of natural gas are the practicality of using it for some applications. Natural gas has to be compressed quite a bit more than propane to be used as a transportation fuel so this brings up safety concerns. There are also complaints about the amount of water and chemicals required for fracking, (breaking up the earth so that the gas will flow). This is being addressed through new technology and better reuse.
As far as power generation goes, a big advantage that natural gas has over solar or wind is that the natural gas can be moved without loss to the source of consumption and converted into electricity nearby with production matched to demand. Solar and wind have to be located near the source of wind or steady light which doesn't means that electricity has to be moved long distances and transmitting electricity is comparatively inefficient due to line loss. As well, wind and solar production can not be scaled to meet fluctuating daily demand.
I think that the above is a fair assessment but as with anything it is all debatable and some issues are more important to different people.
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What about the flaring of sour gas? Surely that's a negative (in that it produces SO2 and burns large quantities of propane).