People speak about natural gas and energy, and you often find a diverse range of opinions on this subject. Does natural gas hurt the environment or can it be used as a clean source of energy? Maybe we shouldn’t look at natural gas as a good energy source, but instead, we should look at why it’s a good energy source. Like oil and coal, natural gas classifies as a fossil fuel, which formed deep below the earth’s surface, which happened millions of years ago as animals and plants were broken down under pressure and heat.
1. Puts Out Lots of Energy
Natural gas consists mostly of methane gas, and it doesn’t have an odor or a color. When you burn it, it puts out plenty of energy that you can use for heating, cooking or generating electricity. You can transport natural gas affordable, and this alternative has often been praised for being a cleaner energy source than what you might get with coal or oil. It burns more cleanly than some of the other fossil fuels, and at the same time, it doesn’t emit as many harmful emissions into the atmosphere. This includes nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Another one of the positives of this alternative is how it doesn’t produce ash or cause health problems.
2. Natural Gas Good for the Economy
As technology continues to advance, we have seen big changes in the supplies and how affordable natural gas has become. The cost dynamics have meant more use of it like natural gas-powered buses, which have only improved the air quality in the cities. Also, we have seen a better economic profile on the renewable energy projects. They have turned natural gas into a backup source of power. Because of the natural gas industry, we have seen a sharp rise in the number of citizens who are employed with projects related to natural gas. In fact, the oil and natural gas sector have given more than 162,000 jobs to hard-working Americans. The Labor Bureau of Department Statistics reports how this is a 40 percent increase.
3. Good for the Environment
Some critics have argued how natural gas can be damaging to the environment, but the extraction methods have continued to improve. In fact, natural gas companies have now made it a habit of drilling multiple wells in a single location, which lowers the footprint development has on the environment. Also, the government has passed new regulations to dramatically change and improve the efforts to recycle water and lower the amount of waste.
Over time, better technology and wiser regulation over the industry’s current operation has led to many environmental advocates being won over by it. For example, Frank Matzner, a member of the Natural Resources Defense Council, continued in saying how we have to look at the number of ways that we can lower the carbon footprint we have, and the advantage of natural gas is how it has a smaller footprint. It might not be perfect, but it’s better than some of the traditional techniques for extracting gas and oil.
In retaining your mineral rights, Form a LLC or similar and move the mineral rights into it. Then when selling land or other real estate, you can rightfully say seller does not own mineral rights.