Citizen Power

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is confused. She sent out a letter today claiming that natural gas is a “clean fuel”.

Washington, D.C.— Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent the following letter today to the Acting Architect of the Capitol, Stephen T. Ayers, asking that the Capitol Power Plant (CPP) use 100 percent natural gas for its operations.

The leaders wrote: “The switch to natural gas will allow the CPP to dramatically reduce carbon and criteria pollutant emissions, eliminating more than 95 percent of sulfur oxides and at least 50 percent of carbon monoxide…We strongly encourage you to move forward aggressively with us on a comprehensive set of policies for the entire Capitol complex and the entire Legislative Branch to quickly reduce emissions and petroleum consumption through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean alternative fuels.”

Pelosi and Reid are giving us the mistaken impression that natural gas is a “clean alternative fuel”. That’s clearly deceptive. Natural gas is a fossil fuel that emits CO2, the main greenhouse gas. She also wrote:

“The conversion will also reduce the cost of storing and transporting coal as well as the costs associated with cleaning up the fly ash and waste. Eliminating coal from the fuel mixture should also assist the City of Washington, D.C., in meeting and complying with national air quality standards, and demonstrate that Congress can be a good and conscientious neighbor by mitigating health concerns for residents and workers around Capitol Hill.”

I’m having a flashback to the campaign — the John McCain campaign. Sarah Palin often mentioned natural gas, since Alaska is in the business of selling it. In one speech, Sarah Palin even called Natural Gas “clean and green”. My message to all politicians: Natural Gas is a fossil fuel. It is burned, and when it is used, it emits C02, methane, nitrous oxide, and other things like radon and mercury. Surely Nancy Pelosi can’t seriously call any fossil fuel “clean alternative” energy. What is she thinking? If she really wanted to use clean alternative energy she would advise the use of solar panels or wind power. But she is calling for 100% natural gas. The letter says,

“The switch to natural gas will allow the CPP to dramatically reduce carbon and criteria pollutant emissions, eliminating more than 95 percent of sulfur oxides and at least 50 percent of carbon monoxide. “

We’re not terribly worried about sulfer oxides. We’re worried about C02, which the burning of regular natural gas emits up to 75% as much as coal.

Maybe she’s thinking of her pal T. Boone Pickens and his obsession with natural gas. He’s a billionaire who has a lot of investment in natural gas — as does Nancy Pelosi and her husband. Nancy and her husband invested in a natural gas package of “between $50,000-$100,000″, as she told Meet the Press last fall. The Wall Street Journal reported: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband invested between $50,000 and $100,000 in T. Boone Pickens’s Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which could benefit from legislation the California Democrat favors to boost U.S. use of natural gas.” She has a personal financial investment in using it, which means she should not be making decisions about where it’s used, or if it’s used, in our government, with taxpayer money. She may personally profit from its use and promotion. See: Nancy Pelosi Believes in Natural Gas. She told Tom Brokaw: “I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels.” When he reminded her that she’s in a position to set policy, (implying she could advocate something like solar or wind) she explained that natural gas would be a good “bridge fuel”, in her opinion because there’s so much of it. How is she qualified to make a decision like that? Now I know why she was smiling so happily during the Natural Clean Energy Summit on Tuesday morning — she stands to personally profit from the promotion of natural gas as a “clean alternative to fossil fuels” even though it’s a fossil fuel that is not clean.

Natural gas is cleaner than coal — but that’s not saying much. See this organization for more information on natural gas. See this description of how “clean” natural gas is:

“Natural gas is NOT clean; it is cleanER than coal or oil. . . . . However, it is the CO2 produced from burning fossil fuels, which include natural gas, that is the big issue these days. And natural gas produces almost as much CO2 per pound as gasoline, and 75% of the CO2 that burning coal produces. Replacing coal plants with gas would reduce the CO2 produced, per pound burned. But not nearly enough. And most of the gas plants coming on line these days are not replacements for coal plants (coal was not considered for these plants), and in any case, these plants produce electricity, and so are not a good model for direct heating in homes and businesses.”

I’m starting to think Congressional movement on climate change is a way for people in Washington to make money with their “alternative” fossil fuel investments, while they are lying to the public about what a clean alternative to a fossil fuel actually is. It’s not another fossil fuel. And while I’m mentioning T. Boone Pickens I would like to ask: why is this man making energy decisions for the country? He is not in Congress. No one elected him to any office. Yet he sits in on these meetings, like the Tuesday energy summit, like he’s an elected official. He’s a billionaire, but he’s never been elected to any public office that I’m aware of. I don’t want him and Nancy Pelosi deciding we must move to natural gas because they have determined, for some personal reason, that other types of actual clean energy aren’t sufficient. What other types of energy aren’t sufficient at, for them, is padding their bank accounts.

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