According to the MIT Energy Initiative report, The Future of Natural Gas, \"the

Question

According to the MIT Energy Initiative report, The Future of Natural Gas, "the newly realized abundance of low-cost gas provides an enormous potential benefit to the nation, providing a cost-effective bridge to a secure and low-carbon future.

The US currently faces a choice between doubling down on natural gas or ramping up renewables. A few more facts to keep in mind:

Power plants typically operate for twenty years, making them by definition a long-term investment. Plants we build today will be operating past 2030, so we need to think far ahead.

Coal plants are by far our largest electricity producer, making up more than 40% in 2011. Natural gas is in second place;

Natural gas is a cleaner fuel source than coal, with roughly half the carbon dioxide emissions;

Natural gas prices over time have been extremely volatile though, fluctuating by more than 400% between 2008 and 2012. Some experts believe the new glut of natural gas from hydraulic fracking will guarantee cheap prices, but no one knows for sure;

Renewables such as wind, geothermal, and hydropower can also be among the cheapest electricity options but we can't control when they produce;

Wind power has been scaling up incredibly fast and even became the largest new power source added in the US in 2012;

The nation's renewable energy lab (NREL) published a report saying it is possible to reach 80% renewables by 2050, but it will require a large investment in transmission lines, grid storage, and moderately higher electricity bills.

The MIT report at the beginning of the prompt claims we should view natural gas as the bridge between our current coal driven electric mix and a distant future of renewables. In a short answer, either agree or disagree with the MIT assessment report. Discuss the various environmental and cost tradeoffs of your choice.

Explanation / Answer

I am fully agreeing with the MIT assessment report. For building a sustainable future we have to make the changes right now. The emissions from burning of fossil fuel is rapidly boosting the global warming which makes our Earth unsutable for living in future. Right now the use ecofriendly energy sources is much low globally compared to the use of fossil fuel. Its difficult to avoid the use of fossil fuels completly as MIT report suggest we should se the natural gas as the bridge between the fossil fuels and the renewable resources. We should explore the possibility of extracting the natural gses through hydraulic fracking. It will bring down the fuel prices and the it will be more ecofriendly, later step by step we can increase the use of renewable source like wind eneregy solar energy etc.

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