According to the MIT Energy Initiative report, The Future of Natural Gas (http:/

Question

According to the MIT Energy Initiative report, The Future of Natural Gas (http://energy.mit.edu/), "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 (http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/images/charts/us_elect_generation-large.jpg), 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 (http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=73&t=11);

Natural gas prices over time have been extremely volatile though, fluctuating by more than 400% between 2008 and 2012 (http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n3035us3M.htm). 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 (http://www.bcse.org/factbook/pdfs/2013-01-31_bcse_factbook_slides_for_bcse_website.pdf#page=10);

Wind power has been scaling up incredibly fast and even became the largest new power source added in the US in 2012 (http://energy.gov/articles/record-year-american-wind-industry);

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 (http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/re_futures/).

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 paper, either agree or disagree with the MIT assessment report. Discuss the various environmental and cost tradeoffs of your choice. Please provide a peer reviewed reference of the article.

Explanation / Answer

I fully agree with the MIT report, I consider that for our sustainable growth path we need to make an smart decision in this regard and we should focus on the green fuel alternative rather than relying on the conventional source of energy of coal which although meat our present energy requirement but it is having an great impact on the environment it’s releasing the carbon in the air although an natural gas is consider as an better alternative for the time being as it’s produces less amount of carbon foot print in the environment by releasing lesser amount of carbon in the air, this can be consider as an bridge where as the 100% clean energy is an expensive method to shift our energy requirement as it’ll require more amount of funding to be pumped in the system. Presently we are only started to tap wind energy but we are blessed with other natural resources such as solar geothermal bio waste all this can also can help us to meat certain amount of energy requirement in the coming days. The requirement of the present time is to consider some good alternative for our sustainable growth for the future generation to come in order to make an earth as an better place to live.

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