Oil, Gas, and the Nation's Energy Future

I spent last weekend in Houston, TX, learning about the oil and gas industry with a group of my classmates, a PhD student, and the head of the Energy and Environment concentration. Why Houston? Well, it's the hub of hydrocarbons in the US. Why oil and gas? Because our current and future energy systems are and will be based on oil and gas.

You might be surprised that I would say that, given my obvious environmental bent. However, what I learned last weekend makes it clear that oil and gas (o & g) will be with us for a long time, and I'm going to have to learn to live with that. In fact, I'm going to have to learn to work with that to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in spite of our dependence on o & g.

What did I learn this weekend? It can be summed up in 3 lessons, which I will address in brief below.

1. Climate change legislation will not happen during the current administration.

There was much excitement over the summer about the climate legislation that reached the Senate. However, the bill fell flat on its face (for many reasons, not the least of which is that climate change has become a partisan issue instead of a scientific one). With elections coming up next month, we are likely to see a shift in the House and Senate that will not work in the planet's favor. Sadly, it looks like we'll need to wait until the next administration.

2. The price of oil and gas largely determines the feasibility of renewable energy.

This seems obvious, but it became even more evident during my time in Houston. People want to pursue the alternatives. Texas has high potential wind capacity, but no one is willing to build wind farms in West Texas because there is no infrastructure to get the power to the populated areas that need it. Of course, no one is willing to put in the necessary infrastructure because there are no wind farms to connect to. Until the price of oil is high enough to offer monetary incentive to seek out alternatives, we won't do renewable. We just won't.

3. Natural gas could be an appropriate, lower-carbon substitute for coal.

This is the idea I found most interesting about the weekend. We spent a lot of time talking about natural gas, both conventional and unconventional forms. The price of gas has dropped significantly, in part due to technology that has increased domestic production. While this does not give us any reason to move towards renewable energy, it could make a compelling case to move away from coal. Coal has traditionally been an inexpensive, easy material with which to generate electricity. However, if the price of natural gas stays low enough, it would offer a pretty attractive alternative to coal, at least environmentally speaking--it emits about 50% less greenhouse gases than coal. It's not perfect, but it's a start.