Would Natural Gas Act As A 'Bridge Fuel?'

NPR

Published August 4, 2015 at 1:52 PM EDT

The Patterson 298 natural gas fueled drilling rig drills on land in the Permian Basin in Mentone, Texas. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, announced yesterday, requires the country to cut power-plant carbon dioxide emissions by about a third by 2030. The plan also requires the country to get more than a quarter of its electricity from renewable resources like solar and wind by 2030, up from 13 percent last year.

The president has called for natural gas, which is not a renewable energy, to serve as a “bridge fuel” to renewable energies. But there are concerns that we could settle into using natural gas, and not transition to renewable sources of energy.

As Susan Tierney, senior advisor of Analysis Group told Here & Now‘s Robin Young, “We don’t know how long that bridge is or how wide it is.”

Guest

Susan Tierney, senior advisor of the Boston-based Analysis Group. She formerly served in the Energy Department in the Clinton administration.