G E T T I N G T H E G E T
64
American Clean Skies Winter 09
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The GET is the Grand Energy Transition:
A critical path to sustainable life and
growth on Earth.
By Jeanette eLLiott
of life. It gave rise to mechanization,
the Industrial Revolution and an
unprecedented economic expansion.
The use of whale oil initiated the era of
liquid fuels, which was soon replaced by a
superior new fuel—petroleum oil. Again,
the newer fuel offered greater versatility
and efficiency, as well as a lighter carbon
load, and society was again enhanced
with its adoption. As the world rode this next great
energy wave, oil became the “lifeblood” of postwar expansion to the modern economy and, now,
the globalized world. Oil, gasoline and diesel all
but invented modern transportation.
Yet, entrenched coal interests prevented
discontinuing the use of coal—despite its negative
impact on public health and the environment. A
fascinating look at a coal-shrouded London in
the era of Dickens illustrates this crossroads of
competing energy sources and their proponents.
For both coal and oil, success created its own
limits—constraints now seen in escalating pollution
and global warming. In the case of oil, volatile prices
also threaten economic hardship and heighten geostrategic tensions between oil-rich and oil-dependent
nations. Thus the “economic utility” of coal and oil
has, in recent years, been drastically diminished.
The successor to the age of liquid energy, Hefner
points out, is the age of energy gases—with wind,
solar and natural gas leading its 21st century onset
and hydrogen representing our ultimate, zeroemissions energy destination (the final stage of the
GET, to be reached by the end of the 21st century,
if not sooner).
It’s reasonable to assume that relatively few
people realize that wind and solar power are
gases, as are nuclear fusion and hydrogen. But
all support Hefner’s “age of energy gases” and the
concept itself will help a broader audience make
sense of the many energy sources in development
and discussion, and understand which energy
sources will work and move us forward.
hird-generation wildcatter and natural gas
producer Robert A. Hefner III has a history of
proving the skeptics in the energy industry and
government wrong. In his new book, The GET: The Grand Energy
Transition, Hefner sets forth a powerful and persuasive vision of the
world’s energy destiny, and outlines how to achieve it.
“Our Earth’s abundant
natural gas is the
only clean fuel that
is ready to go and,
most importantly,
can be scaled up to
displace coal and oil
in sufficient time to
help meet global CO2
reduction targets.”
Robert A. Hefner III
In The GET, Hefner makes a compelling
case that the world’s economic, political and
environmental future demands an accelerated
evolution from a high-carbon energy model to
a low-carbon one. It’s a transition now painfully
overdue. He also shows how vested interests and
resulting governmental policies have forced the
prolonged use of high-carbon energy sources, at
society’s expense.
“The GET” is defined as a powerful, evolutionary force—the cumulative effect of all human
activities each day. It is civilization’s imperative to
achieve sustainable life and growth. Deny it, delay
it, impede it, and the world suffers from the use of
energy sources it has outgrown, taking on risks
described as “the three intolerables.” Which is to
say, the shelf-life of coal and oil (indeed, all solid
and liquid fuels) has expired. Yet, we continue to
use them, burdening society with unnecessary,
even calamitous costs, simply because the powers
that be mistakenly see no scalable alternative and
existing policies favor the continued use of coal
and oil.
From Solids, to Liquids, to Gases Hefner
characterizes humanity’s historic progression
from solid to liquid to gaseous fuels as great
energy “waves.” Within the category of solid fuels,
wood and dung first began to be replaced in the
late 1700s with coal. The change was embraced
because coal released more energy and emitted
less carbon and other pollutants, so its use initially
benefited society greatly, stimulating a great
burst of productivity and improved quality
Winter 09 American Clean Skies 65
Get: The Grand Energy Transition
Time Measured in Centuries
100
SoLiDS (WOOD/COAL)
GaSeS
(NATURAL GAS/WIND/SOLAR/HYDROGEN/FUSION)
UnSUStainaBLe LiFe
SUStainaBLe LiFe
HiGH CaRBon
0
1500
1600
The GET is mankind’s
evolutionary path from
dirty, carbon-heavy
fuels to carbon-light
fuels that lighten the
burden of pollution
—its toll on public
health and the planet.
66
LoW CaRBon
LiQUiDS (OIL/NGL)
American Clean Skies Winter 09
1700
1800
1900
2000
2100
a Lone Voice For decades, Hefner was a
lone proponent of natural gas, within the energy
industry and in Washington. “Natgas” was
dismissed by oil-centric executives who had long
considered natural gas little more than a marginally
useful oil byproduct. Perhaps the fear of its
competitive advantages—being cleaner and more
efficient than either oil or coal—fed the assertion
that America was running out of natural gas.
Oil companies told Congress we were running
out of natural gas. Robert Hefner testified to the
contrary. Ruinous policies followed. Under Jimmy
Carter, policy was passed actually prohibiting the
use of natural gas for all future power generation
and in new industrial plants—its two fastestgrowing markets.
In the wake of the Emergency Natural Gas Act
and the Fuel Use Act, natural gas was whipsawed
by market disruption (a brief boom, a supply
“bubble” and a bust that stunted its development
for the next 30 years). A half-million jobs were
lost; college students elected to study something
else; drilling rigs were salvaged or exported.
American homebuilders went to “all electric”
homes with electric ranges and heating (one of
electricity’s most inefficient uses). Over the next
decade, 80,000 megawatts of coal-fired power
generation capacity was built; we are still living
with its pollution and CO2 emissions.
The fledgling natural gas vehicle industry
disappeared.
Decarbonization slowed to a crawl. The vested
interests of coal and oil had prevailed, expanding
their use—and, as we now know, escalating pollution,
global warming and dependency on oil imports. The
delayed transition to gases effectively put the GET on
hold, at enormous cost to humans and the planet.
The true “life-cycle” costs have been incalculable.
The notion of natural gas scarcity dogged the
cleaner, more efficient successor to coal and
oil. Only in 2008—in the face of 13% growth
2200
2300
no CaRBon
2400
2500
in natural gas production in the past four
years—has the reality of America’s natural gas
abundance become unmistakable.
Decarbonization as a Guidepost Many
Americans who aren’t energy experts have a
growing sense that their future may well hinge on
gaining an understanding of it and having a voice.
The GET can thus make a significant contribution
to the national energy debate. By illustrating
and identifying major energy sources as “waves”
within history’s evolutionary continuum of
decarbonization (and progress from solids to liquids
to gases), logical choices become obvious. The GET
reveals the energy sources and technologies that will
become the most likely winners and losers.
For policymakers and a public struggling to
understand and weigh emerging energy sources,
The GET thus makes it easy to “get.”
The GET is our evolutionary path from dirty,
carbon-heavy fuels that take a heavy toll on health
and the environment to carbon-light fuels that
erase the burden of “external” costs (the true price
of burning dirty fuels, ranging from smog, acid
rain and damaged health to oil wars).
Unfortunately, relatively few people realize that
half of the electricity they use and perceive to be
“clean” is produced from unclean, carbon-heavy
coal—and unfortunately, “clean coal” is, at best,
decades away. Fans of electric vehicles love their
emissions-free attribute, but the question is, what
generated the electricity to charge them—and how
much carbon was released as a result? Today, 50%
of that electricity comes from unclean coal.
And where does all this leave biofuels? The
GET holds that, as liquids, they are destined to be
more costly and less efficient than the gaseous
alternatives. The transition to energy gases is
now well under way, thus biofuels, with all their
economic and environmental problems, have a
relatively limited future.
GET T I N G T H E G E T
The book includes a discussion of each energy
source (specifically, the chapter called “What
Won’t Work, What Will Work.”)
The GET is
transforming energy
use—its technologies
and fuels migrating
from:
Solid and liquid sources
to gaseous sources
Dirty fuels to clean fuels
Largely carbon-based
to largely hydrogenbased fuels
Chemically complex
to chemically simple
Inefficient technologies to
highly efficient technologies
Large, capital-intensive,
centrally located energy
plants and facilities to small,
distributed sources
19th- and 20th-century
energy systems to
21st-century energy systems
Low-tech, primitive systems
to high-tech, smart systems
Finite fuels to virtually
infinite fuels
the Risks of Slowing the Get The author
warns of three intolerable risks looming today
that only grow if we further delay progress
beyond 19th-century solid and 20th-century
liquid fuels, i.e., coal and oil. Both have the
potential to create global chaos. And the turmoil
of 2008 seems to resonate with these risks.
The first is the risk of global warming and
its impact on climate change. The true costs and
consequences of climate change—attributed
to CO2 emissions—are hardly fathomable.
The second intolerable risk is severe economic
contraction. (Our use of oil may well have
exacerbated our present financial turmoil.) The
third is our loss of national security, diminished
military options and rising geostrategic tensions
between the oil haves and have-nots that may lead
to more oil wars.
it Must Be Said: natural Gas is not oil
Another theme in The GET is the public’s general
confusion about what natural gas is, and is not.
Large segments of the population hear “oil and
gas” and think “oil and gasoline.” We talk about
“gas prices,” “gas shortages,” “gas stations” when
we really mean gasoline. This mindset—and
terminology—is at the heart of Americans’
misunderstanding of natural gas. (Some other
countries use “petrol” to describe gasoline, so the
word “gas” isn’t forced to do double duty.)
The book explains that natural gas is “physically,
chemically, geologically, geographically, technologically, environmentally, economically and politically”
different from oil—and then details how.
Hydrocarbons: Heavy vs. Light Also
discussed is the unfortunate term, “fossil fuel,”
which has fostered considerable confusion by
lumping together a solid fuel, a liquid and a gas
(coal, oil and natural gas)! Why? Simply because
they are all derived from organic matter of a
previous geologic time. Or because they are
all “hydrocarbons.”
The GET shows how the critical ratio of
hydrogen-to-carbon among these three fuels
differs starkly. Coal has two carbon atoms for
each hydrogen atom; oil has one carbon atom to
two hydrogen atoms; and natural gas has just one
carbon atom to its four hydrogen atoms. Thus,
only natural gas belongs in the current timeline
of decarbonization (or, as Hefner likes to call it,
hydrogenation). The term “fossil fuels” confuses
our energy past with our future and our energy
problems—coal and oil—with a principal solution:
natural gas.
China, asia and the age of energy
Gases Hefner has spent a lifetime studying Asian
culture and art, so his insights into China’s and
Asia’s progress in advancing to the Age of Energy
Gases are profound. He notes that Singapore is
leading the way by fueling more than 80% of its
power generation with natural gas, has recently
signed its first LNG contract and plans to become
a globally prominent natural gas physical and
financial trading center. It already operates two
public hydrogen filling stations.
But the opportunity for global leadership in
energy gases rests with China, a country Hefner
believes has large quantities of natural gas. Given
its size, rapid growth and parallel escalation of
pollution and CO2 emissions from coal-burning
power plants, its evolution is vital.
the “Real” inconvenient truth This,
Hefner defines as government subsidies that have
long served to distort prices and markets (and
interfere with the GET).
Such subsidies give consumers an artificially low
price, while society bears the true costs. The book
offers extensive policy recommendations informed
by a lifetime spent in energy, one with a frontrow seat on the tragic and long-lasting effects of
misguided policy decisions.
The GET is truly a manifesto, a call to arms for
the world to wake up, and rise up, in defense of
our future here on “Spaceship Earth.”
Robert Hefner testifies on behalf of America’s natural
gas abundance before the Antitrust & Monopoly Committee,
Washington, D.C., July 16, 1977.
Winter 09 American Clean Skies 67