Trump: 'Nobody Really Knows' If Climate Change Is Real

[mrstickball]

SvennoJ said:

mrstickball said:

You need fracking even for renewables. When wind/solar don't run, you need backups, and combined cycle gas plants are the most favored for that. Additionally, the lower gas prices go, the quicker coal gets phased out. Gas is at least 50% cleaner than coal, so it'd help quite a bit, among other things.

Nuclear is good for a backup, yet gas and oil compete with nuclear.

Is gas really cleaner? Nobody really knows :p
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/60392

Certainly not 50% compared to clean coal burning plants.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/energy/2015/10/151013-boundary-dam-test-for-clean-coal-one-year-later/

There's geothermal too, which doesn't depend on backups. Perhaps a good alternative instead of drilling deeper and deeper for oil. There certainly is enough drilling tech around I would think.

Ofcourse gas and oil are multipurpose, and easily exported for profit.

The EIA disagrees with you:

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=73&t=11

 

Geothermal has its own issues, namely insane cost and Earthquakes:

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/geothermal-drilling-earthquakes/