this ingenious technology is called hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly, fracking, and has led to a modern-day oil rush. but there s something else locked up in the shale. natural gas. and natural gas is only half as much co2 as coal, so it s a cleaner fossil fuel. in just over a decade, u.s. production of shale gas has increased 12 times. meanwhile, u.s. carbon emissions are at their lowest level since 1994. we ve had a pretty significant reduction in our carbon dioxide emissions from fuel burning. and it s because of the boom in natural gas, which is cheaper than coal, so companies running power plants say, hey, why are we burning coal when we could burn natural gas. some people see natural gas as a so-called bridge fuel, to get us where we need, towards renewable sources of energy, such as sun, wind, and water. that implies we have time to walk the bridge.
other stuff. so this is a big, big chunk of it. one of the themes in the president s speech was natural gas and how important natural gas has become to the american economy. are you bothered by the fact that the white house seems, a, so gung ho about natural gas, that they view it as a bridge fuel, when many climate activists point out, there s still a lot you ve got to leave in the ground, and we don t start to make progress until we start leaving stuff in the ground. i think natural gas is an important fuel source, it s a domestic fuel source. i think we have to be very careful about how we take it out of the ground. taking things out of the ground is inherently dangerous and can be bad for the environment. there will be a point where you can t continue to grow the use of natural gas. where you actually have to bend the curve down. that means we have to continue to create opportunities for renewables. we need to continue to drive down the price of renewables. there s been a l
explain the law. congress passed the clean air act in 1990. bush i signed it. many provisions of it have been upheld in the supreme court, including epa s authority to regulate greenhouse gases. so what the president is basically saying is, i went to congress, i tried to do it with you guys, you re not responsive. i m going to take the authorities you gave me previously, you gave presidents previously, i m going to take the clean air act and use it to regulate these dangerous pollutants. so if you take the overall emissions in the u.s. economy, how much of them are coming from power plants? a lot. the way people generally think about it, we have a third from transportation, a third from electricity generation, and then a third from buildings and industrial other stuff. other stuff. so this is a big, big chunk of it. one of the themes in the president s speech was natural gas and how important natural gas has become to the american economy. are you bothered by the fact t
which is then pumped to the surface. this ingenious technology is called hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly, fracking, and has led to a modern-day oil rush. but there s something else locked up in the shale. natural gas. and natural gas is only half as much co2 as coal, so it s a cleaner fossil fuel. in just over a decade, u.s. production of shale gas has increased 12 times. meanwhile, u.s. carbon emissions are at their lowest level since 1994. we ve had a pretty significant reduction in our carbon dioxide emissions from fuel burning. and it s because of the boom in natural gas, which is cheaper than coal, so companies running power plants say, hey, why are we burning coal when we could burn natural gas. some people see natural gas as a so-called bridge fuel, to get us where we need, towards renewable sources of energy, such as sun, wind, and water.
rock. sometimes as far as a mile. then under high-pressure water, chemicals and sand are pumped into the line forcing fractures in the rock, releasing the oil which is then pumped to the surface. it s genius technology is termed hydraulic fracturing or more commonly fracking and has led to a modern day oil rush. but there s something else locked up in the shale, natural gas. and natural gas is only half as much co 2coal, so it s a cleaner fossil fuel. in over a decade, u.s. production of shale gas has increased 12 times. meanwhile, u.s. carbon emissions are at their lowest level since 1994. we ve had a pretty significant reduction on our carbon dioxide emissions from fuel burning and it s because of the boom in natural gas which is cheaper than coal, so companies running power plants say, hey, why are we burning coal when we can burn natural gas? some people see natural gas as a so-called bridge fuel to