You may have wondered, how was Southern Company (SO) CEO Thomas A. Fanning so ready and able to respond at length to any question at the SO shareholder meeting? Because he’s a class A CEO who does his homework, such as this white paper he wrote dated September 2011: American Energy Policy, Jobs and the Economy, in which he explains what he meant by “the revolution we have seen in the shale gas industry”.
So, natural gas is important, but it’s not a panacea. Here’s why.
First, the reason prices have dropped so far is because of a new technology called fracking, which releases natural gas from so-called tight rock formations, such as shale gas. Fracking is the injection of chemicals underground, which have the effect of fracturing the rock deposits, thereby releasing the natural gas. There are environmental concerns around the chemicals associated with the fracking process. Those concerns have to be resolved.
Those concerns range from polluted groundwater to earthquakes. It’s great that SO is turning away from coal. I don’t think it’s so great to trade dirty air from coal for dirty water and earthquakes from fracking.
Secondly, many of these shale gas deposits are in places where there is no sufficient pipeline infrastructure necessary to move the gas to the places it’s needed to generate the electricity. Pipelines will have to be built. It will take time. We need to resolve that issue, too.
Meanwhile, rooftop solar
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Another city, more citizens opposed to Georgia Power’s solar tax,
and to Georgia Power’s rate hikes for fossil fuels and nukes.
Hyacinth Manacap Empinado wrote for Athens Patch today,
“No” To Rate Hike for Georgia Power, Say Residents at Athens Meeting:
People urged Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols to vote against the Georgia Power rate hike request.,
Echols says that part of the money will be used to clean up older coal plants and convert some plants to burn cleaner, natural gas.