"***Cross-post from Energy in Depth***

As a fuel source, natural gas represents a rare combination of benefits: Affordable, abundant, and clean. The White House has acknowledged this on several occasions, touting also the enormous job creation potential that responsible natural gas development can deliver.

But for some, denying the facts about natural gas has become a profitable enterprise. The most notable example? The Sierra Club, which recently launched its “Beyond Natural Gas” campaign to stop development of this important source of energy. Ironically, it was also the Sierra Club that was touting the environmental benefits of natural gas just a few short years ago, back when natural gas was expensive and considered in short supply — we’ll let our readers extrapolate the meaning of that.

Nonetheless, the facts are still the facts, and it’s telling that the Sierra Club’s new efforts against natural gas not only butt heads with well-established scientific facts about the processes used to extract it, but also with folks that they used to consider their allies — including President Obama, whom the Sierra Club has cheerfully endorsed for reelection. The United Nations has even pointed out that expanded natural gas use can help the world’s poor and foster a cleaner global environment.

And just this week, the Sierra Club received even more pushback (subs. req’d) for its activism against natural gas, this time from Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Discussing specifically the Sierra Club’s anti-natural gas campaign, Rep. Markey delivered a fairly clear rebuke: “I think environmentalists should want natural gas on the table as an option,” Markey said, adding later that he thinks it would “be wise for us to not take natural gas off the table.”

READ MORE: http://www.eidohio.org/key-democrats-to-sierra-club-youre-wrong-abo...