{"id":337513,"date":"2024-07-25T14:59:06","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T12:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337513"},"modified":"2024-07-25T14:59:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T12:59:08","slug":"natural-gas-industrys-smear-of-coal-is-false-and-self-defeating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337513","title":{"rendered":"Natural Gas Industry\u2019s Smear of Coal Is False and Self-Defeating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Gregory Wrightstone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smearing coal has become a marketing strategy of a natural gas industry that embraces pseudoscientific views of coal combustion as being hazardous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In so doing, gas supporters give credence to a fallacious regulatory regime of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which erroneously classifies carbon dioxide as a pollutant and assigns health effects to low-level pollution without scientific proof. To boot, a false representation of coal, oil and natural gas as environmental bogeymen is perpetuated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most enthusiastic user of this foolish ploy is Toby Rice, CEO of Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., who introduced two years ago a global plan to replace coal with liquefied natural gas. Promoting his product as a \u201cdecarbonizing force\u201d in June at a RealClearEnergy conference<\/a>, the head of the country\u2019s largest gas producer (check the video link above to see his part), said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we would like to do at EQT \u2026 is focus people on a really practical solution that will allow us to provide energy security for the world and address people\u2019s concerns over global emissions. And that path is very simple: transition the world from coal to gas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although natural gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal when burned, the underlying premise of Rice\u2019s pitch rests on the popular myth that CO2<\/sub> emissions will overheat the planet. The organization we lead, the CO2<\/sub> Coalition<\/a>, has overwhelming evidence from top scientists showing that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide not only poses no danger but is beneficial to plant growth and crop production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need more CO2<\/sub> not less. Coal miners could say that replacing their product with gas is a threat to greenery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the gas industry\u2019s Marcellus Shale Coalition has further demonized coal in claiming that Pennsylvanians have realized up to $1 trillion in health benefits<\/a> by reducing emissions of nitrogen and sulfur compounds through the replacement coal-fired electricity generation with gas-fueled power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have no quarrel with the emissions data. However, the link to improved health is based on methodologies of an EPA that has refused for decades to provide evidence for such a connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EPA has long trafficked in data manipulation and falsehood about the supposed health effects of particulate matter, which would be the carrier of chemical compounds into people\u2019s lungs, according to Steve Milloy, publisher of JunkScience.com<\/a> and author of \u201cScare Pollution: Why and how to fix the EPA<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bottom line is that the claim that particulate matter causes death is the most demonstrable science fraud of our time,\u201d says Milloy, a lawyer with a master\u2019s degree in health sciences and biostatistics. \u201cDespite fearmongering for 30 years about millions of deaths, EPA \u2014 and nobody else \u2014 has ever presented a single dead body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 1990s, Milloy has sparred with the EPA over its assertion that particulate matter measuring 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5) is life threatening. PM2.5 was identified as a dangerous pollutant by EPA\u2019s environmental extremists to shut down the coal industry, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While insisting that PM2.5 kills 8 million people annually, says Milloy, EPA has ignored a contradictory epidemiological study by California researchers as well as the results of its own experiments, which failed to produce symptoms in human subjects intentionally exposed to high levels of particulates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1995, the agency\u2019s own Clean Air Scientific Advisory Council rejected EPA findings of health effects from PM2.5 and was denied raw data to examine the claims. EPA also refused to give the data to congressional investigators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The absence of support for EPA\u2019s regulation of PM2.5 should not be a surprise. In a 2023 study<\/a>, Dr. Indur Goklany found that mortality and disease rates improved over a 27-year period even as industrialization and particulate emissions increased in five Asian countries:  India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gas industry jumps on the bandwagon of demonizing coal to gain the acceptance of the \u201cgreen\u201d lobby and the politicians who pander to it. However, gas producers are only feeding coal miners to the crocodile that they hope to escape. It\u2019s a fool\u2019s game, as should be evident by the environmental extremists\u2019 regular targeting of gas operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A better approach would be for gas and coal interests to stand together for their industries and the immense good that hydrocarbons have done for the world since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when coal first fueled steam engines. An alliance of drillers and miners could help defeat a vicious anti-science ideology that seeks to destroy their livelihoods and the civilization they have made possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This commentary was first published at Real Clear Energy<\/a> on July 22, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gregory Wrightstone<\/a> is a geologist; executive director of the CO2<\/sub> Coalition<\/a>, Arlington, Va.; author of Inconvenient Facts: The Science That Al Gore Doesn\u2019t Want You to Know<\/a><\/em> and A Very Convenient Warming: How modest warming and more CO2 are benefiting humanity<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smearing coal has become a marketing strategy of a natural gas industry that embraces pseudoscientific views of coal combustion as being hazardous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":337515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818076,691819635,691822249,691821464,691824761],"class_list":["post-337513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-crop-production","tag-environmental-protection-agency-epa","tag-plant-growth","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/OIG-38.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pNL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":257019,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=257019","url_meta":{"origin":337513,"position":0},"title":"EPA proposes emissions standards that could kill coal, and cripple gas OFFICIAL EPA RELEASE","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/12\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"As China and India build coal plants as fast as their economies will go, the Biden Administration released plans to require carbon capture using unaffordable technology that does not really exist.\u00a0 Will this carbon power grab survive judicial review?\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In \"CCS\"","block_context":{"text":"CCS","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ccs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00fairfaxphotos-Coal.webp?fit=1140%2C758&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00fairfaxphotos-Coal.webp?fit=1140%2C758&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00fairfaxphotos-Coal.webp?fit=1140%2C758&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00fairfaxphotos-Coal.webp?fit=1140%2C758&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00fairfaxphotos-Coal.webp?fit=1140%2C758&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":282674,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=282674","url_meta":{"origin":337513,"position":1},"title":"Electric Grid Reliability: Texas vs. EPA","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A Home Depot parking lot is covered in snow in the Westbury neighborhood, Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, in Houston. From \u00a0Master Resource By Ed Ireland \u201cJust the possibility that EPA will enact such sweeping regulations will slow investment in new power generation that all U.S. power grids need. Recent grid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"CO2\"","block_context":{"text":"CO2","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=co2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/00rawImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":444520,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=444520","url_meta":{"origin":337513,"position":2},"title":"Let\u2019s Get on with Building More New Coal Plants","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/16\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"New modern coal plants are needed for energy security, grid reliability, affordable electricity generation and without pollution, so let me explain some of the details of the equipment used to clean the flue gases and the progress made in cleaning the air since 1970.","rel":"","context":"In \"coal power\"","block_context":{"text":"coal power","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=coal-power"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-ChatGPT-Lets-Get-on-with-Building-More-New-Coal-Plants.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-ChatGPT-Lets-Get-on-with-Building-More-New-Coal-Plants.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-ChatGPT-Lets-Get-on-with-Building-More-New-Coal-Plants.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-ChatGPT-Lets-Get-on-with-Building-More-New-Coal-Plants.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-ChatGPT-Lets-Get-on-with-Building-More-New-Coal-Plants.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":443183,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=443183","url_meta":{"origin":337513,"position":3},"title":"U.S. Fossil Fuel Environmentalism: EPA Air Quality Statistics","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/09\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"U.S. air quality has improved dramatically over the past 50+ years, even as the economy, population, vehicle miles traveled, and energy consumption (largely from fossil fuels) grew substantially.","rel":"","context":"In \"\"criteria\" air pollutants\"","block_context":{"text":"\"criteria\" air pollutants","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=criteria-air-pollutants"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-U.S.-Fossil-Fuel-Environmentalism-EPA-Air-Quality-Statistics.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-U.S.-Fossil-Fuel-Environmentalism-EPA-Air-Quality-Statistics.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-U.S.-Fossil-Fuel-Environmentalism-EPA-Air-Quality-Statistics.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-U.S.-Fossil-Fuel-Environmentalism-EPA-Air-Quality-Statistics.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0-U.S.-Fossil-Fuel-Environmentalism-EPA-Air-Quality-Statistics.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":427608,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=427608","url_meta":{"origin":337513,"position":4},"title":"Climate alarmists howl after EPA rescinds \u2018Endangerment Finding\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/23\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The US Environmental Protection Agency has finally\u00a0rescinded the 2009 Endangerment Finding\u00a0(EF) \u2013 the Obama era EPA ruling that claimed carbon dioxide and other \u201cgreenhouse gas\u201d (GHG) emissions \u201cendanger\u201d human health and welfare. 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