"Increasing the nation's use of natural gas for electricity generation could result in adverse economic consequences, " the report said, noting that natural gas prices are fickle and that fuel switching on a large scale would require regulators to approve more pipeline and storage capacity.
But Sasol's next generation will be about gas to liquid (GTL).
Ironically, given its far greater effort to tackle climate change, the European Union has seen its emissions rise, partly because of an increase in coal-fired power generation in response to Europe's high gas price.
Chancellor George Osborne has hinted he wants a new generation of gas-burning stations, partly because he's no enthusiast for wind turbines, but also because ambitions for new nuclear are being undermined by cost and uncertainty.
There has been turbulence in businesses associated with coal as coal has lost its vigor lately as the preferred fuel option for electricity generation in the U.S. amid rock bottom natural gas prices.
The EIA in its Annual Energy Outlook 2010 report estimates that in 2008, natural gas accounted for 21% for the total electricity generation in the U.S., with the share of coal being around 48%.
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The U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates that natural gas consumption for power generation will be 83% higher in 2030 compared to 2009.
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Separately, coal-fired generation has fallen to less than 40% of U.S. power generation on account of the abundance and lower prices of natural gas.
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Boone Pickens, now touting wind energy as a fix for electricity generation, favors natural gas as a way to alleviate the transportation sector's dependence on oil.
However, it is important to think about ways to reward nuclear for its unique contribution to the U.S. generation mix as a source of reliable power generation with low greenhouse-gas emissions.
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Gas does now contribute 35% to power generation, but rock-bottom prices and a sniffiness about gas as oil's poor relation mean that exploiting its bounty (Saudi Arabia apparently has the world's fifth-largest gas reserves) has proven hard.
Air travel is thought to account for just 6.3% of Britain's greenhouse-gas emissions, compared with around 20% for road transport and 37% for power generation.
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