California billionaire and political activist Tom Steyer used November’s volatility in natural gas prices to advocate for a phasing out of the fuel to be replaced by wind and solar technologies.
“The real point is that over the last year, natural gas prices have spiked up really dramatically,” he says on the video he tweeted out. “They’ve gone up by more than 50 percent, they’re up 30 percent this month. And so what that means is that Americans are going to be spending more to heat their houses this winter if they generate their electricity from natural gas.”
“I think the other point is that the benefits of solar and wind, which are free, become even greater compared to natural gas when natural gas prices go up.”
After saying he thought prices would continue to rise over time, Steyer said, “What that means for the United States is we shouldn’t spend any more time investing in natural gas infrastructure.”
“From now on, our best bet by far is to invest in renewable resources, which is solar and wind, and let the fossil fuel technologies be what they are and belong to what they belong to, which is the past.”
Steyer has long advocated for increased use of wind and solar and has promoted ballot initiatives at the state level which would have increased their usage as well.
However, the comments would be a remarkably bold policy for position for a presidential candidate, which Steyer is now widely believed to be after taking out a full-page ad in USA Today, although he has stopped short of giving a full, positive confirmation of his candidacy.
Steyer is not wrong about natural gas prices being up 30 percent this November, but the fuel is also not above any highs the commodity has traded at in the last 10 years, meaning Americans are not spending more now than at any other time in the last decade.
Today’s prices are still lower than nearly all other price levels from 2003 to 2008, a period after which prices plunged.
Natural gas is also primarily credited with a 14 percent decrease in carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. from 2005 to 2015, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
A paper published in Environmental Science & Technology last year noted that even without federal carbon dioxide regulation, 2017 carbon output levels nationwide were already meeting the targets set for 2025 emissions by the Clean Power Plan, with natural gas receiving the lion’s share of the credit for that achievement.
Despite President Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement, the same paper concluded that the nation could nevertheless still meet the agreement’s goals and that “policies that encourage low natural gas prices are beneficial” to that end, along with a mix of other policies and fuel technologies.
Steyer also repeated the mantra that wind and solar are free. Both technologies require significant upfront capital costs for the manufacture and installation of the solar panels and wind turbines.
Additionally, many energy experts argue that because wind and solar are intermittent power providers—they can only provide when the sun shines and the wind blows—the costs of “baseload” power which must be provided by on-demand sources like coal and natural gas will naturally have to increase as renewable technologies gain greater market penetration.
From a presidential standpoint, Steyer’s remarks also raise questions about the use of the fuel globally, the ability of the United States to be a provider to international markets through liquefied natural gas, as well as how recent discoveries of gas basins and recovery technologies like hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) have contributed to other international security concerns.
For example, a speech in 2015 by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, someone also thought to be a presidential aspirant for Democrats in the next election, noted that the discoveries of new deposits offshore of Israel along with fracking have given the nation more political stability in the Middle East.
“Israel is achieving energy independence with their offshore discoveries, Tamar and Leviathan. What that really means is that OPEC [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] is the past, and their leverage over the economies of the world has been significantly diminished.”
Liquefied natural gas is becoming an increasingly successful export for the U.S. A recent report from Forbes said “2019 will be the most significant year ever for the U.S. liquefied natural gas export business,” adding that the upcoming year would be “the beginning of the boom.”
A representative with Steyer indicated they would not be able to provide comment prior to publication of this report.
Read more at Free Beacon
I don’t know where the gentleman lives, but when he has his heart attack/stroke he’ll probably want more than a horse-drawn ambulance…..
Tom Steyer just another example of the insanity of the modern Eco-Wackos wanting to return us to the Stone Age he and Gore are more nutty then a warehouse full of Christmas Fruitcakes
I support the frackers, not because I hate coal, but because I can cook my supper over an open natural gas flame, without the turbines or boilers and generators and transformers and wires.
Consider any other supply of household energy. Natural gas wins, hands down.
Using it to generate electricity is a lot less efficient.
Exporting natural gas benefits the producer and the buyer, not the “Climate”.
Steyer, Soros, Bloomberg, the Oracle of Omaha, et al, have so many chips, they are playing games that we’re not familiar with . They’ve encountered an obstacle, Trump. No games. He has Adam Smith in his corner.
He sounds as rediculous and idiotic as Al Gore wanting to elminate the Internal Combustion Engine before you know it we’ll be forced to ride bicycles all the time and try to get our groceries home These modern Eco-Wackos are Stark Raving Stupid
How can someone who became a billionaire be so ignorant? Did he really say that wind and solar are free energy? What alternate universe does he live in? If he thinks electricity rates are higher due to increased prices of natural gas just wait to see how high they’d go if we shut down all carbon-fueled power plants and we depended on wind and solar–I can’t imagine how many people would freeze to death in the winter without electricity or gas to heat their homes.
Steyer became a billionaire through running hedge funds that invested almost totally in fossil fuel energy industries, then he somehow converted to environmental lunatic and began his next life opposing fossil fuel. Of course, he neglected to divest of his fossil fuel investments for a number of years while starting his new life, finally had to sell it off when someone inconveniently pointed out that he was a darned hypocrite. Now he’s just a full time looney.