Methane - Between a Rock and a Charred Place

If you are not a regular Up Close with Peter Sage substack blog reader, I think you should be! Peter is a retired financial advisor and a daily blogger of political news and commentary in southern Oregon. His recent post on Abundant Natural Gas highlights the political reality that "the largest domestic producers of natural gas include the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Mexico, and Colorado. Democratic politicians in those states need to defend local industries. It positions local politicians in opposition to the national party."

"The general public thinks Biden isn't doing enough to bring energy prices down. The environmental left thinks Biden has sold out to Big Oil." ~ Peter Sage

One Stanford University climate scientist equates the situation to being "caught between "a rock and a charred place."

Ashland Climate Collaborative, through their Electrify Ashland Now project, and Rogue Climate, through their Ashland Youth for Electrification campaign have been trying to make a case that natural gas should be labeled "methane" as it is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas buildup in the atmosphere. They want ordinances to limit new residential use of methane. So far, they have not gained much traction with the City Council.

Some conservatives bundle the threat of limiting natural gas as part of a conspiracy to take away our gas engine trucks, our guns, and now our gas stoves

The fossil fuel industry is slow to take action toward the "managed decline of fossil fuel production", as urged by several groups:

Oil Change International (OCI) is "a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy." Recently, they called out CERAWeek (the industry's certified gas” event) as having "unproven technology, opaque practices, and conflicts of interest."

KeepItInTheGround.org - Over 400 organizations call on world leaders: End New Fossil Fuel Development.

LofotenDeclaration.org "The Lofoten Declaration affirms that it is the urgent responsibility and moral obligation of wealthy fossil fuel producers to lead in putting an end to fossil fuel development and to manage the decline of existing production."