Climate

Climate Progress, By Joe Romm on October 18, 2013 at 11:13 am

Most claims that shale gas will significantly reduce US carbon emissions in the future are based on little more than hand-waving and wishful thinking. That’s because those claims assume natural gas is replacing coal only, rather than replacing some combination of coal, renewables, nuclear power, and energy efficiency — which is obviously what will happen in the real world.

To figure out what the impact of shale gas is actually going to be, you need an energy-economy model. And since the output of one model depends crucially on the specific assumptions it makes, the best approach would be to look at results of several models. And that is precisely what Stanford’s Energy Modeling Forum does in its new study, “Changing the Game? Emissions and Market Implications of New Natural Gas Supplies Report.”

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In recent months an environmental threat has descended upon our state that is so huge -- so negatively transformative -- that it requires an unprecedented response. Which is why we're crisscrossing Maryland on a nine-stop tour -- from the mountains to the sea, November 5th to December 3rd -- to sound the alarm. Dominion Resources is proposing a massive industrial plan to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) out of tiny Cove Point, Maryland. The plan would radically expand violent “fracking” for gas across our region. It could trigger earthquakes, sea-level rise, ozone pollution, and, potentially, massive “fireball” explosions along the Chesapeake Bay. And it's one of the worst things our state could do for global warming.

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