Description: Bob Wyman's occasional thoughts on matters of often questionable importance
Bob Wyman's occasional thoughts on matters of often questionable importance
Elon Musk recently gained quite a bit of attention with his offer of a $100 million prize for development of the “best” technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions. This increased attention to Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) must have quite pleased our nation’s gas utilities who have recently been arguing that they can maintain the value of their massive infrastructure, while achieving climate goals, by replacing natural gas (methane) with Renewable Natural Gas . RNG is methane that might be either
The unfortunate reality is that as long as there is leakage in the gas transmission and distribution systems (and there always will be) even the best technologies for producing RNG will result in significant climate impacts and social costs. The many claims that RNG is either “carbon negative” or “carbon neutral” are, quite simply, false. Gas utility regulators should carefully review the science and then prohibit gas utilities from wasting ratepayers’ money on futile RNG schemes and soon to be stranded ass