Shale Gas No Panancea

Shale-gas companies are pushing to put shale-gas energy ahead of renewable energy in government policy






These curves were created using industry estimates of reserves for the U.S. and assuming world reserves scale to U.S. reserves according to land area ratio.

Because of the fast extraction shale-gas prices will go down for the next decade and then will rise precipitously as extraction falls rapidly. It will be difficult for customers and governments to refrain from burning the shale gas as rapidly as possible instead of moving to renewable energy.

These curves show that it is very dangerous to put reliance on shale-gas for our energy future. The shale gas should be dedicated to creating the infrastructure for renewable energy rather than burning it for other uses. Your grandchildren will ask “Why did you burn it instead of using it to secure the future?”