This commentary is by Susan Leigh Deppe, M.D., of Colchester, a psychiatrist in private practice. She is a member of many political, medical and environmental organizations, including the Vermont Climate and Health Alliance, the Vermont Psychiatric Association and the Vermont Medical Society.
Since late July, Vermont Gas has been promoting “sustainable” renewable natural gas created on a large Vermont farm. Sounds cool, right? Spoiler alert: It’s not.
About 67% of “natural gas” (fossil gas) used in the U.S. is fracked. Fracking pollutes air, poisons precious ground and surface water, destroys landscapes, and fragments habitat. Renewable natural gas, also called biogas, is generated from manure, sewage, landfills, or biomass such as food waste. It is cleaned and mixed with fossil gas and sent to customers.
The new digester in Vermont uses food waste and dairy manure as feedstocks. The renewable natural gas is to be used for heating/cooling buildings at Middlebury College and sold to other purchasers.
So, what’s so bad about renewable natural gas?
- Renewable natural gas is part of a nationwide attempt to “greenwash” the gas industry and sustain its nonviable business model in a climate emergency.
The industry is fighting the trend toward electrification of buildings, appliances and vehicles that enables use of truly clean power, such as wind or solar. Buying renewable natural gas is a false “feel-good solution” to environmental guilt. It allows the industry to keep building expensive gas infrastructure, which will saddle customers with rising costs as we transform our energy system.
- Natural gas is not clean.
Whether fossil or renewable, it is very bad news for the climate. While it burns cleaner than coal, its lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are often just as high. Natural gas is methane. When released, it is a greenhouse 86 times as powerful as carbon dioxide over 20 years, and 34 times as bad over a century.
- While it is good to capture methane that would otherwise escape into the air, e.g., from manure, it is far better to minimize methane production in the first place.
Reducing meat consumption and eliminating factory farming would go a long way toward that goal. Studies show that natural gas wells, processing facilities and pipelines leak — a lot. Since we are in a climate crisis, we must plug leaky gas and oil infrastructure as fast as possible and stop building more. We need to cut fossil fuel emissions 50% by 2030 to salvage a changed, but somewhat livable, planet. Therefore, renewable natural gas should be reserved for uses which are impossible to electrify, e.g., certain types of heavy industry.
- There are far better ways to decarbonize buildings, appliances, and transportation — by going electric, powered by clean energy.
Air- and ground-source heat pumps, which work by moving heat from outside to inside (or vice-versa for A/C) are far more efficient than burning fossil fuels in a furnace. They work with a variety of heating systems. Electric heat pump water heaters work similarly. Efficient electric and induction stoves can replace gas. (Gas stoves cause indoor air pollution, including nitrous oxide and particulates. Children’s risk of asthma is 32% higher in homes that cook with gas — about like having a smoker in the household.)
- Renewable natural gas is an expensive, impractical pipe dream. It is far more expensive to produce than fossil gas, so increasing its use would cause huge increases in gas prices. And it has been calculated that there is only enough feedstock material in the U.S. to replace a small percentage of our current natural gas use with renewable natural gas. Producing farm renewable natural gas most efficiently requires huge factory farms, notorious for air and water pollution and animal cruelty — the opposite of the humane and regenerative farming practices of many Vermont farmers, which help sustain our planet.
Mother Nature is critically ill, with escalating droughts, floods, ecosystem collapse, water and food shortages, new diseases, horrific wildfires, and storms. So how do we cut our greenhouse emissions in half in the next eight to nine years?
- When you buy, electrify! Start getting off gas, propane, oil, gasoline, and diesel as much as you can. Equipment and appliances you buy from now on will likely be in use beyond 2030. Rebates, subsidies, and tax incentives are now available, with much higher amounts for Vermonters with low and moderate incomes. These cover everything from home heating to electric lawnmowers.
- Replace gas and diesel cars and trucks with hybrids, plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles. EVs are much cheaper and simpler to maintain than gasoline vehicles. People in lower-income households can get 25% of cost (up to $5,000) for these kinds of used vehicles, including many EVs.
- Weatherize your home and/or business. Weatherization improves health and comfort and saves fuel and money. Check out the options. Lower-income families can weatherize for free! Information is available here.
To paraphrase Bill McKibben, it’s time to kick gas — and all fossil fuels — as quickly as possible. So, when you buy, electrify!
