It is no secret, and I don’t want it to be a secret, that I am very much in favor of natural gas coming to Bristol. My reasons are three-fold and I will try to be brief in describing them. If you wish to have more information or a dialogue about this please contact me.
First, natural gas is cheap and plentiful. I know too many people, fully employed, retired, with families or living alone, for whom the heating season is a serious financial burden. On the other extreme there are those who can afford their heating costs but would prefer that they were less expensive. Of the choices in fuels natural gas has shown itself to be the least expensive of heating choices, which may free up some cash for other necessities.
Secondly, natural gas is the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels. This again has a positive effect on heating costs, as well as positive environmental effects, in that natural gas heating equipment does not have to be serviced or repaired as often as systems using other fossil fuels. In addition, since this fuel is delivered via pipes in the ground it does not rely on forms of transportation burning dirtier fossil fuels to reach the point of use.
Third, natural gas is the perfect bridge fuel because of the above. It is no secret that fossil fuels will eventually be phased out of heating, transportation, and other needs. There are serious efforts afoot moving in that direction, and properly so, to stop the damage that these fuels are doing to our environment, but these changes are not going to occur overnight nor are we able to make a large change in a short period of time.
There are too many people who are completely dependent on their status quo when it comes to fuel usage and cannot afford to quickly change to a more eco-friendly situation. Then there are those who don’t want to do this at all. The change, I fear, will be very slow in coming — for instance, while Vermont set goals to reduce greenhouse gas pollution about ten years ago that would reduce the production of these gases to less than a quarter of what they were over a thirty year period, the production of these gases has increased by about 25 percent during that ten year period.
Our intentions were good, but I fear that we will not live long enough to see the ambitious goals achieved. Therefore, why wouldn’t we use the cleanest burning of the readily available fossil fuels that we have at hand, using the appliances available, while we strive to rid ourselves of the ecological burden of the alternative fossil fuels, then succeed in abandoning all fossil fuels altogether?
I know, I know. In this day and age all one has to do is take a stand or assume a position and there is a huge amount of information of all qualities to support or criticize one’s stance, but this is what I feel is a possible solution.
Ted Lylis
Bristol