Natural Gas is Not a Fossil Fuel

Updates

April 20, 2014: I may be slow, but I'm tenacious. LOL. I finally figured this one out. "Fossil fuels" is Democratic code for "coal." Read the original post below and substitute "coal" for fossil fuels." The Democrats count on unions and coal workers voting for Democrats. Rendell and Pelosi certainly are not going to come out fighting, using the word "coal." No sirree.... that would cost them votes. So, to obfuscate the discussion, they refer to coal as "fossil fuels" and suggest that natural gas is an alternative to coal fossil fuels. 

Bottom line: "fossil fuels" is Democratic political speech for "coal."
 

Original Post

Pennsylvania has a  huge natural gas industry due to the Marcellus shale.

Governor Edward Rendell, Pennsylvania, was on CNBC this morning (November 3, 2010 -- the morning after). He continued to reiterate his call for increased renewable energy for the US. When asked about natural gas, he pointed out that natural gas was not a fossil fuel.

I thought that was interesting. It certainly sounded like spin, unless he just mis-spoke. But this was so basic, he could not possibly be mis-speaking. Or so I thought.

But then I asked myself: is natural gas a fossil fuel?

Google "natural gas" and "fossil fuel" and these are the top two hits:

EIA Energy Kids (I kid you not)
Pelosi on Natural Gas: Fossil Fuel or Not?

I kid you not. If you google "natural gas" and "fossil fuel," the first hit you get will take you to a EIA site targeting children. This is what the US Energy Information Agency site says:

The main ingredient in natural gas is methane, a gas (or compound) composed of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. Millions of years ago, the remains of plants and animals (diatoms) decayed and built up in thick layers.  This decayed matter from plants and animals is called organic material — it was once alive.  Over time, the sand and silt changed to rock, covered the organic material, and trapped it beneath the rock.  Pressure and heat changed some of this organic material into coal, some into oil (petroleum), and some into natural gas — tiny bubbles of odorless gas. 

That sounds like a fossil fuel to me. Although the word "fossil" is not used, "remains of plants and animals decayed and built up" sorta sounds like fossils.

Now, the Wall Street Journal article regarding Nancy Pelosi's take on natural gas:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's message on energy, already evolving in recent weeks, might have to evolve a little more.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, the speaker twice seemed to suggest that natural gas – an energy source she favors – is not a fossil fuel.

“I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels,” she said at one point. Natural gas “is cheap, abundant and clean compared to fossil fuels,” she said at another.

The speaker apparently was trying to contrast her support for expanded use of natural gas as a motor-vehicle fuel, and many Republicans’ preference for more domestic oil drilling — particularly through opening up more of the Outer Continental Shelf for exploration. 

That was back in 2008. The WSJ pointed out that Pelosi had invested between $50,000 and $100,000 in T. Boone Picken's Clean Energy Fuels Corporation which markets compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas as a fuel for motor vehicles.

So, Governor Rendell did not misspeak. There is a political element that a) believes in global warming; and, b) believes that natural gas is not a fossil fuel.

I was amazed that CNBC did not challenge that assertion. Apparently I am wrong and the EIA is wrong. 

Today I will be going into teach as a substitute for a chemistry and biology teacher. I hope no one asks me if natural gas is a fossil fuel. I will be flummoxed.

I cannot make this stuff up.