Does Barack Obama think natural gas is “dirty”?

President Barack Obama

As a potential Presidential candidate, Barack Obama said to Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal;

“What we ought to tax is dirty energy, like coal and, to a lesser extent, natural gas.”

Does Obama really view natural gas as “dirty”? Then we heard;

“And we should also tap more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process.” Is the natural gas in Alaska any cleaner then anywhere else? No. This is politics. Simply statements that are directed to the audience at the time.

The fact is that natural gas is cheaper and considerably cleaner then gasoline. Its not cleaner then hydrogen or electric depending on what you include in your calculations. Vehicles power by natural gas has been around since the 1960′s but only recently has it been getting more attention. Rightly so. It is the only practical next step to reducing carbon emissions and moving towards an even cleaner future with hydrogen.

However, the situation is much different for the Alberta oilsands where there is no doubt that oil sands production accounts for 32% of Canada’s carbon emissions, not to mention the carbon emissions attributable to the consumption of the products produced from the oil sands. This may draw more and more attention to the importance of natural gas as the primary fuel of choice for transportation in North America. And the biggest source of natural gas in Canada perhaps North America is the Horn River basin.