The Grid: Electrical Infrastructure for a New Era

by Gretchen Bakke

The recent boom in natural gas, however, seems to legitimate that industry’s claim that it is the perfect transition fuel. For the moment, it’s almost as cheap as coal; we have a lot of it, ripe for domestic exploitation; and it is more efficient for producing electricity because power plants that run on natural gas are spun first by the raw force of combustion and then run on steam, giving twice the bang for the same buck. At first glance, natural gas is also cleaner than coal. This is certainly true if one is thinking in terms of particulates and not greenhouse gases or wastewater pollution. Methane emissions from natural gas development and leaky transport infrastructure, however, undercut some of the climate advantage gas has over coal. One 2012 study estimated that if the industry were to let leak only 3.2 percent of the gas produced, it could be worse for the climate than coal. In most places, leakages are not that bad. In some places they are worse.