Inside Energy (https://insideenergy.org/tag/noaa/)
A natural gas boom in the U.S. is changing the power sector in the country. It’s credited with bringing down American carbon dioxide emissions more than any other factor. But, one difficult to control component of the natural gas industry threatens to undermine those gains.
Natural gas has lower emissions than other fossil fuels, and so it is often touted as a “bridge fuel” to ease our country’s transition from big polluters like coal and oil to a cleaner, greener, low-carbon energy future. But methane leaks as a result of natural gas production may put that clean gas bridge in doubt.
Our most important piece of infrastructure–the grid–is also the most vulnerable to an unpredictable, strange kind of weather. Severe solar storms could knock out power to millions of Americans. And critics say new regulations don’t go far enough to protect the grid.
