Popularity of Natural Gas is Undeniable

ENEMIES CAN’T DENY IT: An anti-natural gas push poll accidentally confirms that most people actually like natural gas. The poll showed 68% of Americans have a positive view of natural gas.

Of course they do because it’s affordable, reliable and clean. Here’s the truly ironic part: A pair of left-wing NGOs Data for Progress and the Center for Climate Integrity commissioned the study.

• The findings should not come as a surprise. As Energy In Depth has previously examined, natural gas enjoys strong bipartisan support, including in states with aggressive climate policies such as New York.
• Americans value natural gas because they experience its benefits every day: affordable energy, reliable power and lower emissions.
• Natural gas always comes through in a crisis, Winter Storm Fern a recent example.
• It demonstrated that it’s the backbone of the electric system, providing the largest share of additional power generation in all affected regions.

Consider: This is more proof that federal legislation such as the Affordable Reliable Clean Energy Security Act should be passed into law. This would bolster what most of us already know: energy must be affordable, reliable and clean for homes and businesses on a 24/7/365 scale.

Climate activists’ own results show that Americans don’t want policies or frivolous litigation that make energy more expensive: they want access to abundant, affordable natural gas that keeps their air conditioning running, lights on, and costs low. That’s a reality even the industry’s loudest critics couldn’t poll away.

Despite several decades of scare campaigns run by the extreme environmental lobby, natural gas delivers — efficiently and affordably.

We produce it in quality and quantity, surpassing the likes of Russia and Saudi Arabia. And we export natural gas through LNG ports to our allies worldwide.

Bottom line: So, after years of attacking natural gas, activists accidentally documented its popularity instead. It’s something most of us already knew.

 

TRADING FARMS FOR SOLAR PANELS: New York state, thanks to its Gov. Kathy Hochul, is about to see valuable farmland gobbled up by solar farms. Gov. Hochul’s support of sprawling solar energy fields in rural upstate New York has caught the ire of three federal agencies — and one country music star — who are demanding answers about the state’s “rush” to approve projects “without fully accounting for their long term costs.”

Why it matters: But the feds are pushing back hard as an analysis reveals that, in upstate New York, a dizzying 24,000 acres of solar panels are required to equal the output of one typical natural gas facility, which takes up about 25 acres and powers 250,000 homes annually.

• USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and EPA Chief Lee Zeldin, along with country singer John Rich, have co-signed a letter skewering the Hochul administration’s industrialization of prime farmland for solar energy complexes while potentially strapping costs to rural communities.
• Zeldin accurately portrays it as an out-of-touch leader overriding local control to push a leftwing political agenda.
• New York’s green energy mandate went into effect with 2019’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which requires 70% of statewide electricity to come from “renewable” sources.

Residents in upstate New York demand answers regarding the proposed 18 solar complexes.

Zeldin, a former congressman from Long Island, said the letter aims to get those “answers from Hochul about her heavy-handed steamrolling over America’s most productive farmland.”

This is another green-at-any-cost politician making decisions that hurt her constituents. Many are surprised to learn that New York has 30,650 farms covering about 6.5 million acres of land.

To make matters worse, many of the multibillion-dollar solar contracts have been farmed out to foreign companies — including Canada, France and South Korea, The New York Post reported.

Bottom line: The good news is that the USDA has the ability to block taxpayer dollars and limit subsidies to solar projects sitting on certified prime farmland. We strongly encourage them to exercise that authority.