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I don't know much about electrcity but as I am around to different places, I have seen these little generators that are powered by natural gas. I wonder if the really big generators that are powered by filthy coal can be instead powered the same way by gas. We have lots and lots of gas and it is cheap and a whole lot better than filthy dirty coal is. I wonder why we are not using it.
Gas Powered electric generators have largely replaced coal fired and oil fired power plants in the NE because they are much cleaner and actually cheaper to operate because they are more efficient. They can be turned on and off to meet the daily load .Another point is they have a much lower carbon footprint since the gas is usually methane which only has C-H bonds not C-C bonds. A comparable gas fueled plant emits only about 40% of the carbon a coal or oil fired plant does and this before any other equipment is put in the exhaust stream to sequester or remove CO2. Using gas in the place of coal, using renewables where they may sense like wind in the Plains states or solar in the Sun Belt or tidal power on the coast plus switching to plug in hybrid cars which Exxon-Mobil estimates could cut our use of gasoline by 40% with some motorists getting and average of 300 mpg. We would meet our greenhouse gas rediction targets promised by 2050 by just these steps alone. No need for silly carbon taxes or even more goofy trading of carbon tax credits either!
I don't know much about electrcity but as I am around to different places, I have seen these little generators that are powered by natural gas. I wonder if the really big generators that are powered by filthy coal can be instead powered the same way by gas. We have lots and lots of gas and it is cheap and a whole lot better than filthy dirty coal is. I wonder why we are not using it.
You are using it. So are other countries. There are developing States that use oil-fired generators (because they have no coal) who are switching to natural gas. It takes longer than 3 days to do that.
There are several issues that you must consider.
First, many homes are heated by natural gas. The demand on natural gas to produce electricity would drive up the price of both the electricity and natural gas for home heating. Are you prepared and willing to pay those costs?
Second, Capital, like people, cannot be in two places at once. The amount of Capital required for petro-chemical infrastructure, and that includes natural gas and oil drills, whether on land or off-shore, the connector lines, the pipelines, the processing facilities (different than processing facilities), refining facilities, etc etc are very Capital intensive. It costs a lot of money to build and maintain that infrastructure, and even that wouldn't be so bad, but it also requires specialists and specialty trades. In other words, we ain't talking about an ordinary maintenance guy that you can pay $10/hour for. We're talking about highly trained highly specialized maintenance people, who get paid a lot more.
Expanding natural gas in the US will suck Capital right off the Market. You can either pony up money to fund a natural gas pipeline to transport it, or you can pony up money for manufacturing, but you cannot do both (because Capital cannot be in two different places at the same time).
Finally, there's an issue over CO2 emissions.
I'm not very knowledgeable about this, but my understanding is that they "count" CO2 from start to finish. You're mining coal, and the vehicles that do the mining emit CO2; mining of coal emits CO2 from the Earth; the vehicles used to transport coal emit CO2; the coal is burnt and emits CO2.
It is claimed that the use of natural gas or LNG produces nearly the same amount of CO2 as coal. Natural gas pockets often have CO2 pockets or CO2 locked in the soil, and it is liberated or released during the extraction process, and then there are several weak-points in the distribution processes that also results in CO2 emissions. It's been alleged that fracking releases a large amount of CO2 as well.
Like I said, that is what's claimed.
You need to be wary of arguments like "it's cheap" because they ignore economics. It's cheap only because of the current Supply/Demand Curve. Increase Demand and it will no longer be cheap, unless you can match Supply against Demand point-for-point on the Curve.
I don't know much about electrcity but as I am around to different places, I have seen these little generators that are powered by natural gas. I wonder if the really big generators that are powered by filthy coal can be instead powered the same way by gas. We have lots and lots of gas and it is cheap and a whole lot better than filthy dirty coal is. I wonder why we are not using it.
like the others have said, there are power plants that use natural gas to create electricity, and the numbers are growing each year. remember that coal has been cheap for generations, and as such coal fired plants were the norm. coal is also to use, and there is virtually no problem with leaks or spillage with coal.
and with modern emissions controls, coal fired plants are relatively clean to operate, those that arent are shut down, or have been converted to other energy sources.
the biggest problem with coal however is the ash that is left over after burning.
I don't know much about electrcity but as I am around to different places, I have seen these little generators that are powered by natural gas. I wonder if the really big generators that are powered by filthy coal can be instead powered the same way by gas. We have lots and lots of gas and it is cheap and a whole lot better than filthy dirty coal is. I wonder why we are not using it.
Who runs those natural gas generators? I thought it was the same kind of businesses that do it from coal. I am saying that the main reason gas hasn't replaced coal is that the cost of replacement is prohibitive until the coal generators are worn out. I am sure that as that happens they will be replaced. Also, the price of coal will go up rapidly, if Obama gets his way, and that may cause a few more coal plants to close down so new gas generators can replace them. Of course, the price of electricity will make a very rapid rise to the consumers according to what Obama promised.
They have converted two of the coal burning plants in the Twin Cities to natural gas. Not only does it help clean up the air, they run the plants with like half the amount of employees.
Don't us humans expel CO2 gas and when are they going to Modify us ?
Coal fired plants can produce multiple gigawatts of power where gas fired and alternative means produce just megawatts do you want thousands of windmills and solar panels litering our landscapes,seashores?
Damn it if you all are so smart why not clean up our coal and have cheap electricity for 600 years to come DUH.
Don't us humans expel CO2 gas and when are they going to Modify us ?
CO2 expelled artificially just sounds worse to environitwits.
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