Over at some raggedy-rag called Slate, energy futurist Chris Nelder takes a deep dive into the available data on how much natural gas we can get out of the rocks beneath the U.S. via fracking.
His conclusion is that we could run out of natural gas in a decade, especially if we make a mass transition to it as a source of electricity and transportation fuel. (Our proven reserves, as opposed to our potential or likely ones, are only good for a decade’s worth of energy.) Or we could run out in 100 years, which is the supply all the industry-fluffing hacks at the Wall Street Journal insist we have. We simply don't know.
Nelder’s article provides some eye-opening insight into just how much the industry hypes the size of potential gas reserves. But his larger point is that with this much uncertainty, we are taking a huge risk in thinking that natural gas is anything other than a temporary solution to our energy woes.
I suppose I don't need to remind you that sources of renewable energy aren't projected to peter out for billions of years.
