US achieves greenhouse gas targets!

My last blog discussed the impact technology which has been developed in the United States to extract shale oil and gas is having. I was quite pessimistic about the negative impact this development would have on the introduction of non-fossil fuels, but, the results have been extraordinary, with the price of natural gas in the US being halved.

The availability of cheap energy in the form of shale gas has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the production of greenhouse gases in the US. In fact it has been reported recently that the overall emission of greenhouse gases is at its lowest for the past 20-years. As a result, the US has met the Kyoto target of 0% increase since 1990. This result is despite the fact that it refused to sign up for a Kyoto Target.-

This is a great result for the planet, and it has been achieved solely due to the increased use of natural gas as a fuel because of the price. It is important to note that these results were not due to any effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In a way, this confirms the strategy that has been put forward previously that natural gas should be adopted globally to replace coal for electricity generation as an intermediate step to reduce carbon dioxide production. The results experienced in the US would seem to suggest the validity of this proposal.

The irony is that the carbon dioxide reduction has been achieved inavertently and as a result of the much derided fracking technology, which has enabled the production of low cost natural gas.

Meanwhile, Santos has also announced that it has successfully developed a shale gas producing well in Western Queensland. There are extensive deposits of gas bearing shale in Australia that have similar potential to those being exploited in the US.

This may herald the widespread introduction of low cost natural gas in Australia to replace coal as a source for electricity generation. The result would be a 15% reduction in total greenhouse gas production using existing technology. In addition gas fired power stations are easier to integrate with solar and wind power generation as they can be switched on and off more rapidly.

For more information about future developments regarding this topic, watch this space.