REPORT: GAS SHOULD NOT CROWD OUT CCS, RENEWABLES, NUCLEAR

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
6/7/13

A report released this week by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) touts the short and medium-term environmental benefits of switching from coal to natural gas in the power sector, but also warns that the broad deployment of renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage technology is central to achieving deeper greenhouse gas reductions in the longer term. The report, “Leveraging Natural Gas to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” promotes the “significant opportunities” of using natural gas to help decrease power sector emissions and limit the pace of climate change, but stresses that it must not crowd out zero- and low-carbon sources of energy. “To avoid dangerous climate change, greater reductions will be necessary than natural gas alone can provide. Ensuring that low-carbon investment dramatically expands must be a priority,” according to the report, which was funded in part by natural gas industry groups. “Zero-emission sources of energy, such as wind, nuclear and solar, are critical, as are the use of carbon capture and storage technologies at fossil fuel plants and continued improvements in energy efficiency.”

In order to achieve that balance and ensure that the deployment of technologies like CCS and renewables remains a priority, the C2ES analysis says that a price on carbon and incentives for zero-carbon generation should be put into place to penalize the negative externalities associated with emitting fossil fuels. The report, however, does not wade far into the potential for CCS on natural gas. Instead, it focuses on how complementary gas can be with renewables in particular, since gas generation can easily cycle up or down to counterbalance the intermittency of renewables. The report adds that the price of wind power, which is fixed at zero, could conversely provide a hedge against natural gas’ historic price volatility. “In order for this mutually beneficial relationship to flourish, carefully designed policy that allows the addition of both sources to the grid in a complementary fashion must come into play and be encouraged by public utility commissions,” the report says.

During a June 4 launch event, Darryl Banks, vice president for energy policy at the Center for American Progress, said the recent U.S. shale boom provides an opportunity for government and industry to buy some time and commercialize cleaner energy technologies and speed the development of the country’s low-carbon economy. “We’ve got this very interesting opportunity right now as we’re looking at a fuel that’s substantially cleaner [than coal] from the standpoint of greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. We need to “intelligently use this timeframe so that as we move into the middle part of the century with a fuel mix that allows us to meet climate targets. We’ve got an opportunity to think clearly about putting into place a set of policies and incentives that could give renewables and much more balanced playing field here.”