One of the great myths of recent years is that the world is undergoing a “great energy transition”. In fact, the world is undergoing a dramatic energy transition. But it is not the one the left wants.
Despite hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars being invested in wind and solar energy, we still get less than 10% of our energy from green sources.
The REAL energy transition is moving towards natural gas. A few weeks ago, the price of natural gas fell below $2 per MMBTU, the lowest energy price in 20 years (adjusted for inflation). Just a few years ago, the price was four times higher in real dollars.
As an experiment, I went to the supermarket to find out what a 16-ounce bottle of Evian water costs today. The price I saw was $2.69 and can go up to $3. Natural gas is cheaper than water today.
This natural gas revolution is due to modern drilling technologies – including horizontal drilling and fracking. This technology is improving all the time and will keep the price low for decades to come.
Natural gas now has all the qualities of a miracle fuel. It is abundant, made in America, burns cleanly (using natural gas REDUCES carbon emissions), is reliable, and is cheap. The U.S. has natural gas supplies to last at least 200 years—and probably much longer.
Environmentalists should celebrate the natural gas revolution: It is by far the most important reason that carbon emissions in the United States have dropped dramatically and that our air is cleaner today than at any time in the last 100 years. At the same time, we are realizing that windmills and solar panels are far from the “clean energy” we had hoped for. We now have graveyards full of decommissioned wind turbines made of toxic plastic and steel, which must be buried in massive landfills or dumped in the ocean.
As we increasingly switch to electric and hybrid vehicles, natural gas is the obvious power source to power these batteries.
Much of the natural gas reserves in the United States lie on federal land. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have halted the leasing permits needed to find the next giant oil and gas deposits. Given that we have around $50 trillion worth of oil, gas and minerals in the mountains of the Western states, Unleash Prosperity estimates that the U.S. government could reap well over $1 trillion in revenue from leases and other taxes by drilling and mining these resources.
So why is the climate change industrial complex against natural gas when it – combined with nuclear power – is the long-term solution to all of the world’s energy needs?
Apparently because natural gas is TOO cheap and TOO plentiful. Why use natural gas when you can use expensive and totally unreliable wind power? The left has backed the wrong horse and foolishly invested hundreds of billions of dollars of its own and taxpayer money in these unproductive technologies.
The only thing holding back our limitless natural gas future is the government.
Stephen Moore is a visiting scholar at the Heritage Foundation and senior economic adviser to Donald Trump.
