, Columnist
Gas Got America Off Coal. Now It’s Coming for Asia’s Oil
It can work in concert with carbon-free energy to break the hold of the dirtiest sources of power.
Powered by LNG, even on the sea.
Photographer: James MacDonald/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
To many in the petroleum industry, natural gas is the unsung hero of the energy transition.
It may not be a clean fuel, but it’s nowhere near as dirty as coal, which it has been pushing out of grids in Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Poland over the past decade. In the US, which produces nearly 30% of the world’s gas-fired electricity, generation increased by 876 terawatt-hours between 2010 and 2023 — more than the 648 TWh pick-up in wind and solar — and enough to explain three-quarters of the 63% decline in coal power.