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» Environmentally Sound » LNG & the Environment
Natural Gas & The Environment
A Cleaner-burning Energy for a Clean Environment
Natural gas is the cleanest major source of energy used in the United States today - a viable fuel that can improve air quality today as it replaces higher-emitting fuels, while providing an important bridge to the most promising renewable technologies of the future.
Clean-burning natural gas is used to safely heat our homes and cook our food, to more cleanly fuel power plants generating about half the electricity in California, and to power natural gas alternative vehicles that reduce air pollution by replacing dirty gasoline and diesel vehicles. Natural gas is cleaner burning than other fossil fuels because it contains more hydrogen (which results in harmless water as the combustion byproduct) and less carbon, which produces the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). (See graph below.)
Fueling the Transition to Cleaner, Alternative Vehicles – and to the Renewable Technologies of the Future
Currently, the private and public sectors have been introducing cleaner natural gas-powered buses, taxis and other vehicles - and pushing to build natural gas fueling stations for more widespread use of these alternative-fuel vehicles. In Ventura County, for instance, natural gas buses are already being used. Santa Barbara is also moving in this direction. And Los Angeles County has the largest natural gas fleet in the country.
Increasing use of natural gas as fuel for buses, trucks and cars is important to improving our environment and public health because it reduces emissions that foul the air we breathe - causing illnesses such as asthma and other lung problems, especially in children and the elderly. So shifting to cleaner-burning natural gas vehicles will start reducing air pollution - and its resulting health problems – immediately.
Natural gas is a bridge to hydrogen - among the most promising renewable energy sources of the future. Because of the overlapping technologies and research-and-development applications shared by natural gas and hydrogen vehicles and fueling stations - e.g., both require engines, tanks and other equipment specifically designed for dry, compressed fuels - progress in natural gas vehicle development paves the way for the transition to renewable hydrogen-powered transportation.
Currently California's limited natural gas supplies are consumed by California power plants that produce about half the state's electricity. So by providing reliable supplies of safe, clean natural gas locally, Clearwater Port makes it easier and more affordable for businesses and governments in Ventura County to shift from gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles to cleaner burning natural gas alternative vehicles.
With Clearwater Port providing additional natural gas supplies, Ventura County and California could lead the transition to a cleaner, healthier future.
NRDC
"NRDC has helped show that compressed natural gas is an affordable, cleaner alternative fuel for buses and some trucks; thousands of these vehicles are now on the roads… The diesel engines used on America's farms, construction sites, ports, airports and for other "non-road" uses are some of the dirtiest diesels anywhere, spewing out more asthma-attack-inducing soot particles than all of the nation's buses and trucks combined. But a clean solution is in sight: the same advances in fuel and engine design that work for buses and trucks should work for heavy diesel equipment, too. In some cases, natural gas may even provide the cleanest alternative – cutting toxic and other emissions below what is currently possible with today's diesel fuel and engines."
Environmental Safety
A spill or leak of liquefied natural gas would cause minimal land or water damage. It does not foul water or beaches like oil. Instead, it would rapidly evaporate into the atmosphere. And for more than 40 years, natural gas has been safely delivered around the world in liquid form without any maritime incidents resulting in a major release or injury.
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The Campaign to Dump Dirty Diesel
"NRDC has helped show that compressed natural gas is an affordable, cleaner alternative fuel for buses and some trucks; thousands of these vehicles are now on the roads… The diesel engines used on America's farms, construction sites, ports, airports and for other "non-road" uses are some of the dirtiest diesels anywhere, spewing out more asthma-attack-inducing soot particles than all of the nation's buses and trucks combined. But a clean solution is in sight: the same advances in fuel and engine design that work for buses and trucks should work for heavy diesel equipment, too. In some cases, natural gas may even provide the cleanest alternative — cutting toxic and other emissions below what is currently possible with today's diesel fuel and engines."
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