By Robert Bradley Jr.
“Bill McKibben is desperate. Instead of accepting reality, he continues his magical thinking of wind and solar dominance. But as James Hansen, the father of the alarm, stated: ‘Suggesting that renewables will let us phase rapidly off fossil fuels in the United States, China, India, or the world as a whole is almost the equivalent of believing in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy’.”
It’s an old story in the futile, wasteful decarbonization effort. Should natural gas be part of the solution, displacing diesel oil and coal in home heating and power generation? Or should natural gas be condemned as a “fossil fuel” just like oil and coal. Enter Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, a trade/lobbying group espousing “Our Path to a Clean Energy Future.”
Their tag line reads: “Climate progress, along with energy affordability and reliability, starts with renewables and natural gas working together.” But the climate activists want little to do with this pitch. Bill McKibben, wrote:
At Inside Climate News, Kiley Bense has the scoop on how the natural gas industry is buying Democrats to try and influence the energy debate…. Energy “has to be reliable, it has to be affordable,” [former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter] added, one theme of an argument made throughout the evening that the path to a clean energy future should be built on gas. “It has to be there when people need it. It’s not a sometime thing.”
Continuing,
That messaging is favored by the event’s sponsor, Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, a coalition formed in 2020 to “educate and inform about the central role natural gas and natural gas infrastructure play in the clean energy future and as a partner to renewables.” Natural Allies’ goal is to redefine gas as “the most affordable and reliable energy source.”
The fix is in to McKibben.
Natural Allies—whose funders include the fracking company EQT, gas utility Enbridge and Venture Global, a liquefied natural gas provider—woos left-leaning and moderate voters in blue and purple states by hiring Democratic leaders like Nutter to share their message. Nutter’s advisory firm was paid $240,000 in 2024 for his work on behalf of the group, and he sits on its leadership council with other Democratic politicians like former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan.
The dreaded word “fossil fuels” is the smoking gun.
Eugene DePasquale, the current chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, is the state chairman for Natural Allies. He appeared on the panel alongside Nutter. “It’s always been focused on, ‘How do we convince Democrat officials to stay onside to support fossil fuels?’” said Charlie Spatz, a research manager at the Energy and Policy Institute, of Natural Allies’ mission. “They exclusively exist to influence Democrats, in my opinion.”
The dash-to-gas is on despite the gas turbine shortage from the misdirection of production of industrial wind turbines. Bill McKibben is desperate. Instead of accepting reality, he continues his magical thinking of wind and solar dominance. But as James Hansen, the father of the alarm, stated:
Suggesting that renewables will let us phase rapidly off fossil fuels in the United States, China, India, or the world as a whole is almost the equivalent of believing in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.
