Rice calls the expansion of natural gas"the biggest green initiative on the planet." But it could be a gamble, with high risks for the climate.A natural gas flare on an oil well pad burns as the sun sets outside Watford City, North Dakota, in January 2016.Like coal and oil, natural gas is a fossil fuel that emits greenhouse gases when burned, trapping more heat on our planet and accelerating climate change. It's true that natural gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal.
Imaging of 12 plumes of methane east of Hazar, Turkmenistan, captured by NASA's orbital imaging spectrometer, is overlaid on a satellite photo in this handout image, released in late October.It's unknown just how much methane currently leaks from gas operations, because companies often don't report or measure them.
The analysis found that industry actors used two core arguments against methane regulations: that natural gas is a"low-carbon" energy source and that it's good for energy security.for stronger methane-emission regulations, including requiring oil and gas companies to monitor and plug methane leaks. President Joe Biden touted the plan at COP27.
But many researchers argue that's not an effective alternative to eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions because forests only store carbon over hundreds or thousands of years — not on the hundreds--thousands-of-years timescale that the gas, oil, and coal were storing carbon before companies burned it.