An energy plan we can start now must include natural gas

In the August 25 edition of the Washington Post, David Crane’s editorial “An Energy Plan We Can Start Now” presented a broad plan to address the desire for “reliable, affordable and increasingly sustainable power,” but somehow managed to ignore the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels, which also happens to be domestically abundant and therefore a major contributor to energy security—natural gas.

Any sensible energy plan must include natural gas, which currently meets one-fourth of America’s energy needs and is the fastest growing of the fossil fuels.

Mr. Crane also stated that a large-scale deployment of clean coal must be a national priority.  While clean coal is an important component of any domestic energy strategy, achieving it will be very expensive and its outcome uncertain.   By contrast, natural gas is already the cleanest fossil fuel—it contains just one carbon atom—and when combined with new, highly efficient natural gas technologies and used directly in America’s homes and businesses it is the easiest and fastest way to achieve a low- or zero-carbon option.

For any “here and now” energy plan designed to ensure a low-carbon and secure future, clean, domestically abundant and highly efficient natural gas must be front and center.