Methane Menace: It’s A Gas Gas Gas

By FRANK LINGO

Natural gas, abundant in America, has been touted as the cleanest of the fossil fuels. That’s a bit like saying a certain member of a mobster family is the least murderous.

All the extractive fuels are deeply problematic to the cause of combatting climate chaos. The primary component of natural gas is methane. Methane’s demerits range from the ground-breaking (in the word’s worst sense) practice of fracking, which is linked to the astronomical rise in earthquakes, to the leaks that accompany the gas all along its path to usage.

As Bill McKibben notes in his excellent free newsletter from The New Yorker, methane traps heat at about 80 times the rate of carbon dioxide. So it’s a global warming agent on steroids. And McKibben said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that 2020 had the largest increase in methane since they began measuring it in the 1980’s.

Our last president tried to sabotage the environment in many ways, including laxity on regulating methane. President Biden and the Democratic-controlled Congress are working hard to undo the quagmires of complications so progress can proceed.

The Washington Post reported on April 28 that the Senate passed a bill to restore methane emission limits that were first enacted under President Obama. As of this writing, the House has not yet taken up the bill, but is expected to pass it and send it for Biden’s signature.

There are other problems with natural gas being used widely for heating and cooking, like a leak can ignite and blow up your house.

Now that solar and wind have become price-competitive with burning fuels (and in some cases cheaper), there is no reason not to convert our energy infrastructure to renewables.

What’s not to like with this changeover? It’s safer, cleaner, cheaper, and just might save us from our abuse of the Earth. It will also provide a lot of new jobs with good pay.

As McKibben explained, these are measures with methane we can control, unlike the release of methane from polar ice melting. That effect has been set in motion by human activity since the dawn of the industrial revolution, and will demand tremendous commitment to reform from nations worldwide. A lot of promises have been made for this, but there has been little action.

What can we as individuals do? One huge source of methane getting released into the atmosphere is the meat industry. Eating less meat or no meat would be a contribution to the solution.

Another way we can help is by installing solar panels in our homes, and driving hybrid or electric vehicles, which are now proliferating.

Let’s pursue our opportunities to protect the planet from the plunder we have perpetrated.

Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2021

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