Why isn't Natural gas proposed as an environmental option to oil and Coal?

Question

We have large reserves of Natural gas which we're trying to sell as cheaply as possible to China, whereas Countries in South America are using the gas for vehicles and power generation. Wouldn't this be less polluting than oil and coal or even electric cars that run off power generated from coal fired power stations. This could also reduce our importation of oil. Also several people have suggested ethanol, but in Brazil where they are doing this I thought the large amounts of area devoted to growing crops for ethanol had created another environmental disaster.

Answer 1

Natural gas is just another fossil fuel.  We might import less oil, but in the end we're going to have to find another solution to our energy crisis.

Answer 2

Shipping the natural gas is expensive, and the storage facilitys are ugly.

Answer 3

wind energy is the best!  WHAT DO WE WANT? WIND POWER! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!

Answer 4

well natural gas is a fossil fuel and it will run out with time. What we need to be doing is  using  wind power, solar power, waves ect to create electricity and use these to power our cars ect. or use bio diesel (soy, vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases).

Hope that helped

Answer 5

It is; there are, however, some problems.  

First, it is generally more expensive on an energy content basis.  For fixed users, however, this is often offset by the fact that you need far less emissions control technology when buring natural gas.

For transportation fuel use, the problems have to do primarily with storage.  Compressed natural gas contains far less energy per unit volume than liquid fuels like gasoline or diesel oil so CNG fueled vehicles have shorter ranges.  They also must be refueled at special stations equiped with the necessary compressors.  Despite these draw backs, a number of municiple and comercial vehicle fleets do operate on CNG.

Answer 6

Several reasons.  

1.  It's a limited resource.  While coal and oil are also limited resources, energy-wise we have a lot more power available from coal than natural gas (or oil).  The best environmental alternatives to coal, oil, and natural gas would be renewable sources of energy.  

2.  Natural gas still contributes CO2 to the atmosphere.  It is cleaner burning than coal or oil, but "clean burning" just means it's combustion goes completely to CO2 without putting out CO, particulates, etc.  

3.  Natural gas is a bit tricky to transport.  Pumping natural gas over land through a pipeline is one thing.  Overseas transport of natural gas, however, requires it to be put into a liquified state, which has all sorts of technical and political issues attached to it.