Natural Gas Can Save the Climate? Not Exactly    • Share   •
Read Later   I’m beginning to think solving this global warming
thing is going to be really, really hard. We all know that the
burning of carbon-intensive coal is just about the single
biggest source of manmade greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why
groups like the Sierra Club are fighting so hard to get America
off coal—whether or not we burn the billions of tons of coal
left in the ground may well decide just how unbearable the
climate becomes.  So the fact that technological advances had
enabled the U.S. and many other countries to tap vast new
reserves of shale natural gas should be good news, at least for
the climate. As a fuel natural gas is cleaner and significantly
less carbon-intensive than coal, while much cheaper than most
renewables, at least at this point. While some studies have
tried to argue that the manufacturing process for shale
gas—which includes controversial hydrofracking—means that the
fuel might be dirtier over the long term th