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Is this the end of the line for gas?

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Comments

  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,228
    Jamie is correct that electricity is underpriced. A Boston Edison executive told me in early eighties that business would still be negative cash even if it got its electricity gratis. Study a utility's financial statements: Continuously issuing debentures and new shares. Transformers, wires, and switchgear have to be replaced regularly.

    Gas pipes may last longer but they also get old. Eventually world will go electric. But for elected laymen to set the schedule sounds funny to me.
    bucksnort
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,228

    Somewhere I read that more methane leaks into the atmosphere from rotting vegetation than from any other source. Sorry I can't remember where I read that.

    Also CH4 contribution to insulating your atmosphere is insignificant. Hundreds of times more CO2 molecules than methane. And hundreds of times more H2O than CO2.

  • ratio
    ratio Member Posts: 3,616

    Somewhere I read that more methane leaks into the atmosphere from rotting vegetation than from any other source. Sorry I can't remember where I read that.

    Doesn't that, pedantically, include coal & oil? :lol::lol::lol:
    Zman
  • WMno57
    WMno57 Member Posts: 1,250
    edited April 2021
    jumper said:

    Also CH4 contribution to insulating your atmosphere is insignificant. Hundreds of times more CO2 molecules than methane. And hundreds of times more H2O than CO2.

    Its not that simple. A single molecule of CH4 causes much more warming than a single molecule of CO2 or H2O.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential
    I DIY.
    ethicalpaul
  • WMno57
    WMno57 Member Posts: 1,250

    Somewhere I read that more methane leaks into the atmosphere from rotting vegetation than from any other source. Sorry I can't remember where I read that.

    A large amount of methane has been sequestered in permafrost for tens of thousands of years. We are now melting permafrost. That releases methane. Methane makes world warmer. More permafrost melts.

    We have unleashed a Feedback Loop.
    I DIY.
    HomerJSmith
  • flat_twin
    flat_twin Member Posts: 350
    Were any of you NG users notified by your NG provider of an upcoming peak charge from the cold snap in February when the Texas electrical grid went down ? I was just notified by our local cooperative that they were hit with a huge bill from their NG supplier due to the demand for NG during that cold weather event. My personal share is a one time charge of $274.
    I had seen reports of crazy high electric bills in Texas during the emergency due to the way their electric utility costs are structured and based on market costs. I suppose it is ignorant of me to be surprised at the ripple affect this is causing but the reality of a market based pricing system for utilities where in an emergency consumers get gouged and the investment banks make millions just seems wrong.

    From a Colorado new story in March...

    DENVER (KRDO) -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced it will look into potential fraud and market manipulation of natural gas prices during the February cold-snap.

    Natural gas prices reached record-breaking levels during a four-day period last month. Market prices of about $2.50/Dekatherm skyrocketed to nearly $200/Dekatherm. Forcing utility companies like Colorado Springs Utilities to spend nearly tens times as much as they would during a typical week.

    Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sent a letter to FERC on Tuesday praising them for this investigation. Saying in a statement that, "while those costs are now being pushed to customers, some companies like an investment bank gained $210 million from the gas and electricity price increase."

  • HomerJSmith
    HomerJSmith Member Posts: 2,426
    edited April 2021
    As long as Bush's baked beans or Heinz pork & beans are available, we're not going to run out of gas and you can take that to the bank. I know, I'm stoopid.
  • ch4man
    ch4man Member Posts: 296
    1)they're not gas leaks, they're known as "fugitive product emissions"

    2) a leaking 6" pressure main that's buried 2 ft underground may leak but if the ground is saturated from rain it now leaks water into the gas. low pressure systems are a bad idea.

    now around here the local gas co's apply for a rate case with the public utility commision. monies from approved rate cases are to be used for infrastructure upgrades. and as seen by all the cottonpickin roadwork they are keeping true to their word.

    you east coast folks need to ask is rate cases are denied or approved. that will point to the root cause issue.
    oh and yes the consumer will still take it in the shorts, but at least they'll be safer......