Hefner on the Topic of Carbon Reductions
(Hefner has been advocating that the conversion to natural gas would lower U.S. CO2 emissions faster than any other alternative for some time)
- 1991, February, Oklahoma Forum magazine: “Natural gas…produces emissions that contain virtually no sulfur dioxide, 1/3 less carbon dioxide, and no dirty solids spewing out of cars, trucks and buses.”
- 1991, March 12, Speech, New Mexico State University: “Opportunities abound for the natural gas industry…in the power generation sector: if the environmental movement is truly serious, virtually all growth in power generation will be fueled by natural gas.”
- 1992, Paper “An Econergenic Policy for 21st Century America”: A long-term, econergenic plan [based on natural gas], with a vision toward the 21st century …can cleanse our cities of oil/gasoline related pollution and reduce America’s CO2 emissions to meet global targets.
- 1995: Paper, “Fuels in Transition – Toward Sustainable Economic Growth: The Age of Energy Gases”: “Technologists have recently focused their creativity upon natural gas technology and innovation…natural gas is only 50% carbon, clean and efficient and requires an even less centralized, smaller, barely visible and less capital intensive technology [than other fuels such as coal and oil].”
- 2002, Booklet, “Energy and The U.S. Marketplace”: “Coal will always emit about twice the CO2 of natural gas, as well as sulfur dioxide (the principal component of acid rain), and other pollutants not emitted from natural gas fired plants.”
- 2002, Booklet, “Energy and The U.S. Marketplace”: “Had the Fuel Use Act never existed and two-thirds of the coal-fired electric generating capacity added since 1979 been fueled instead by natural gas (as would have been the case considering natural gas’s rapid growth preceding the legislation), U.S. CO2 emissions would have been reduced by over one billion metric tons. America would be producing about 4% less CO2 annually and would already be on its way to meeting Kyoto emissions targets.”
- 2006, January 25, Booklet, “Our Global Energy Future: Asia’s Opportunity,” from speech in Singapore: “With methane (natural gas) we are about 50% carbon (and when burned efficiently even less carbon emitted per unit of electric output)…Today’s methane combined cycle generating plants are up to 60-65% efficiency (vs. coal at about 30%)…With natural gas use we are burning a primary energy source that has less carbon and less CO2 output per unit used and therefore every kilowatt of electricity produced with methane emits much less CO2 than the same kilowatt produced by half as efficient coal. Also, natural gas virtually eliminates all the other external costs of coal.”
- 2009, from Hefner’s book The Grand Energy Transition published by John Wiley & Sons: “Because natural gas power emits 50 percent less CO2 [than coal-fired power], we should immediately implement a policy that requires combined cycle natural gas power be run at the highest capacity possible and be dispatched first. This one action could replace about a third of all the coal-fired electricity in the United States without building a new plant and, at the same time, lower annual U.S. CO2 emissions by an astonishing several hundred million tons per year.”
- From The Grand Energy Transition: “If Congress passed legislation that mandated clean, low-carbon natural gas power first where possible, I estimate that enough natural gas generation capacity would be located in a sufficient number of critical locations so that about one-third of the coal plants could be closed down and over 300 million tons of annual CO2 emission would be eliminated.”
- From The Grand Energy Transition: “Why not forget about capturing 60 percent of coal’s CO2 emissions and simply switch to natural gas, which reduces CO2 emissions by at least 50 percent?”
- From The Grand Energy Transition: “By scaling up clean natgas, we can put climate change in remission and regain our energy independence…By converting half the U.S. vehicle fleet and the necessary fueling stations to natural gas…we can reduce CO2 emissions by about 225 million metric tons per year.”
- From The Grand Energy Transition: “No other fuel [than natural gas] can be scaled up faster to…diminish CO2 emissions, smog, and other pollution in all urban areas.”