In a letter to the editor published Aug. 2, “Natural gas can be backbone of Utah’s power grid,” the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Mountain West Director urged Utah’s policymakers to support transitioning the state’s coal-fueled electrical power to natural gas, because it’s a reliable, lower carbon source. It’s bad advice.
While natural gas burns cleaner than coal, it’s not clean — leakage at wells and in transit make its carbon emissions as bad as coal. Carbon emissions are causing climate disasters and food shortages, fueling migrant and health crises and stressing our economy and security. Natural gas can only be considered a very short-term stop-gap and, even then, only if the leaks are stopped.
It would be a monumental mistake to invest in any fossil fuel as a “backbone” for Utah’s power grid.
The API advocates for its own misconceived self-interest, not Utah’s. Their strategy has been to deny the effects of fossil fuels and to resist making them clean enough to be effectively used even as a step to zero-emission energy. Their lobby effort against natural gas leakage reduction is a prime example. They are invested in the unconscionable, making our planet largely unlivable for future generations, in order to maximize profits. Utah’s policymakers should have none of it. Investing deeply in natural gas infrastructure is a waste of money and will become an excuse to postpone the necessary transition to zero carbon emissions.
There are much, much better technologies available to support our future energy needs. Let’s invest in them, rather than in the past. Utah has the resources to leverage the clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. It’s a practical and factual matter, not one of ideology.
Tom Butine, St. George