‘Natural gas boom is a boon’ for renewables — Moniz
“The way I look at it is that this natural gas boom is a boon,” Moniz said during a town hall session yesterday that was posted in a video on his Facebook page.
“The way I look at it is that this natural gas boom is a boon,” Moniz said during a town hall session yesterday that was posted in a video on his Facebook page.
“The key is that buying time is not very useful if you don’t use the time,” he said. “It means pushing hard on those other technologies, on the renewable technologies. This is the time to get those ready for the marketplace on a big scale. So, this is the decade, I believe the crucial decade, for us to accomplish that,” Moniz said.
Natural gas is partially responsible for the recent decrease in carbon dioxide emissions, and “it affords us a little bit more time to develop the technologies, to lower the costs of the alternative technologies, to get the market penetration of these new technologies,” he said.
In particular, Moniz said solar will likely beat expectations for going mainstream. “I’m very bullish on solar,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a lot bigger than most people think sooner than they think, in my view.”
Along with solar and wind, Moniz said he would also be taking a good look at the “forgotten” renewables including engineered geothermal systems and small hydropower, as he noted during his confirmation hearings.
Moniz was sworn into office earlier this week after being confirmed 97-0 by the Senate last week.