DONATE SUBSCRIBE

What is Natural Gas

Natural gas is methane - an odorless, colorless gas that occurs when plants decay without oxygen. Commercial natural gas is harvested from oil and coal formations through hydraulic fracturing, a horizontal drilling practice that involves high pressure water injection.

Transcript

[Dr. Scott W. Tinker] Natural gas is methane; an odorless, colorless gas that occurs when plants decay without oxygen, like in a compost bin if you forget to turn it or in the belly of a cow. Livestock makes huge volumes of methane, and so do we. Billions of us emit billions of cubic feet of methane every day. Methane is also found in lakes or ponds, wherever microbes break down plants with limited oxygen. In fact, methane is very common in water. Bubbling up from swamps, off continental shelves, in springs and water wells, there are enormous volumes of methane frozen in water called methane hydrates at the bottom of oceans. But for all of these, they're either not concentrated enough or the technology doesn't exist to harvest them in commercial quantities. But that's starting to happen in some unusual places. Some sewage treatment plants now use digesters to turn organic wastes into methane- in this case, called biogas. We can make crop and livestock waste into methane too. All landfills produce methane, and some are capturing it to run small power plants. But today, to get natural gas and the huge volumes needed to fuel society, we drill into the same reservoirs that produce oil. These conventional reservoirs, like under the Arabian Gulf, are some of the largest natural gas fields in the world. Some countries are drilling into coal to produce methane, and in the U.S. we are drilling horizontal wells into source rocks called shale and fracturing them with high-pressure water injection. This technique, called hydraulic fracturing or fracking, has produced huge new volumes of natural gas in the U.S. and could probably do so around the world. And it could produce some huge new benefits, but we'll first need to address some environmental concerns with fracking, and we'll talk more about both.

  

Rate this Video

Scott Tinker, Chairman

Presentation Download

Switch Energy Alliance (SEA) is pleased to provide downloadable slides free of charge. SEA is a non-profit and depends on financial gifts. Nothing is too small. Please make a contribution today.

Download Donate

Terms & Conditions

Agreement between User and the Site

Welcome to switchon.org. The switchon.org website (the "Site") is comprised of various web pages operated by Switch Energy Alliance ("SEA"). The Site is offered to you conditioned on your acceptance without modification of the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein (the "Terms"). Your use of the Site constitutes your agreement to all such Terms. Please read these terms carefully and keep a copy of them for your reference.

The Site is a non-profit site.

SEA is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to inspiring an energy-educated future that is objective, nonpartisan, and sensible. SEA's global video- and web-based approach engages students and general viewers in a positive conversation to work collaboratively on energy challenges. SEA reaches millions of people of all ages where they live and learn: online, in classrooms, in professional training, and in museums.

Privacy

Your use of the Site is subject to SEA's Privacy Policy. Please review our Privacy Policy, which also governs the Site and informs users of our data collection practices.

Electronic Communications

Visiting the Site or sending emails to SEA constitutes electronic communications. You consent to receive electronic communications and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically, via email and on the Site, satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

Your Account

If you use this site, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. You may not assign or otherwise transfer your account to any other person or entity. You acknowledge that SEA is not responsible for third party access to your account that results from theft or misappropriation of your account. SEA and its associates reserve the right to refuse or cancel service, terminate accounts, or remove or edit content in our sole discretion.

Children Under Thirteen

If you are under the age of thirteen, you must ask your parent or guardian for permission to use this website. If you are a parent and you have questions regarding our data collection practices, please contact us using the information provided at the end of this agreement.

Links to Third Party Sites/Third Party Services

The Site may contain links to other websites ("Linked Sites"). The Linked Sites are not under the control of SEA and SEA is not responsible for the contents of any Linked Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Linked Site, or any changes or updates to a Linked Site. SEA is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by SEA of the site or any association with its operators.

Certain services made available via the Site are delivered by third party sites and organizations. By using any product, service or functionality originating from the Site domain’s, you hereby acknowledge and consent that SEA may share such information and data with any third party with whom SEA has a contractual relationship to provide the requested product, service or functionality on behalf of the Site users and customers.

No Unlawful or Prohibited Use/Intellectual Property

You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Site strictly in accordance with these terms of use. As a condition of your use of the Site, you warrant to SEA that you will not use the Site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. You may not use the Site in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Site or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the Site. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available or provided for through the Site.

All content included as part of the Service, such as text, graphics, logos, images, as well as the compilation thereof, and any software used on the Site, is the property of SEA or its suppliers and protected by copyright and other laws that protect intellectual property and proprietary rights. You agree to observe and abide by all copyright and other proprietary notices, legends or other restrictions contained in any such content and will not make any changes thereto.

You will not modify, publish, transmit, reverse engineer, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the content, in whole or in part, found on the Site. SEA content is not for resale. Your use of the Site does not entitle you to make any unauthorized use of any protected content, and in particular you will not delete or alter any proprietary rights or attribution notices in any content. You will use protected content solely for your personal use and will make no other use of the content without the express written permission of SEA and the copyright owner. You agree that you do not acquire any ownership rights in any protected content. We do not grant you any licenses, express or implied, to the intellectual property of SEA or our licensors except as expressly authorized by these Terms.

Use of Communication Services

The Site may contain bulletin board services, chat areas, news groups, forums, communities, personal web pages, calendars, and/or other message or communication facilities designed to enable you to communicate with the public at large or with a group (collectively, "Communication Services"). You agree to use the Communication Services only to post, send and receive messages and material that are proper and related to the particular Communication Service.

By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree that when using a Communication Service, you will not: defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others; publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate any inappropriate, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent or unlawful topic, name, material or information; upload files that contain software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy of publicity) unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents; upload files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another's computer; advertise or offer to sell or buy any goods or services for any business purpose, unless such Communication Service specifically allows such messages; conduct or forward surveys, contests, pyramid schemes or chain letters; download any file posted by another user of a Communication Service that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such manner; falsify or delete any author attributions, legal or other proper notices or proprietary designations or labels of the origin or source of software or other material contained in a file that is uploaded; restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the Communication Services; violate any code of conduct or other guidelines which may be applicable for any particular Communication Service; harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including email addresses, without their consent; violate any applicable laws or regulations.

SEA has no obligation to monitor the Communication Services. However, SEA reserves the right to review materials posted to a Communication Service and to remove any materials in its sole discretion. SEA reserves the right to terminate your access to any or all of the Communication Services at any time without notice for any reason whatsoever.

SEA reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, in SEA's sole discretion.

Always use caution when giving out any personally identifying information about yourself or your children in any Communication Service. SEA does not control or endorse the content, messages or information found in any Communication Service and, therefore, SEA specifically disclaims any liability with regard to the Communication Services and any actions resulting from your participation in any Communication Service. Managers and hosts are not authorized SEA spokespersons, and their views do not necessarily reflect those of SEA.

Materials uploaded to a Communication Service may be subject to posted limitations on usage, reproduction and/or dissemination. You are responsible for adhering to such limitations if you upload the materials.

Materials Provided to the Site or Posted on Any SEA Web Page

SEA does not claim ownership of the materials you provide to the Site (including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit to any SEA Site or our associated services (collectively "Submissions"). However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you are granting SEA, our affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses including, without limitation, the rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Submission; and to publish your name in connection with your Submission.

No compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Submission, as provided herein. SEA is under no obligation to post or use any Submission you may provide and may remove any Submission at any time in SEA's sole discretion.

By posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your Submission as described in this section including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input or submit the Submissions.

Third Party Accounts

You may be able to connect your SEA account to third party accounts. By connecting your SEA account to third party accounts, you acknowledge and agree that you are consenting to the continuous release of information about you to others (in accordance with the privacy settings on those third party sites). If you do not want information about you to be shared in this manner, do not use this feature.

International Users

The Service is controlled, operated and administered by SEA from our offices within the USA. If you access the Service from a location outside the USA, you are responsible for compliance with all local laws. You agree that you will not use the SEA Content accessed through the Site in any country or in any manner prohibited by any applicable laws, restrictions or regulations.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless SEA, its officers, directors, employees, agents and third parties, for any losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorney's fees) relating to or arising out of your use of or inability to use the Site or services, any user postings made by you, your violation of any terms of this agreement or your violation of any rights of a third party, or your violation of any applicable laws, rules or regulations. SEA reserves the right, at its own cost, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will fully cooperate with SEA in asserting any available defenses.

Arbitration

In the event the parties are not able to resolve any dispute between them arising out of or concerning these Terms and Conditions, or any provisions hereof, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise at law or in equity for damages or any other relief, then such dispute shall be resolved only by final and binding arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act, conducted by a single neutral arbitrator and administered by the American Arbitration Association, or a similar arbitration service selected by the parties, in a location mutually agreed upon by the parties. The arbitrator's award shall be final, and judgment may be entered upon it in any court having jurisdiction. In the event that any legal or equitable action, proceeding or arbitration arises out of or concerns these Terms and Conditions, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its costs and reasonable attorney's fees. The parties agree to arbitrate all disputes and claims in regard to these Terms and Conditions or any disputes arising as a result of these Terms and Conditions, whether directly or indirectly, including Tort claims that are a result of these Terms and Conditions. The parties agree that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this provision. The entire dispute, including the scope and enforceability of this arbitration provision shall be determined by the Arbitrator. This arbitration provision shall survive the termination of these Terms and Conditions.

Class Action Waiver

Any arbitration under these Terms and Conditions will take place on an individual basis; class arbitrations and class/representative/collective actions are not permitted. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT A PARTY MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN EACH'S INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PUTATIVE CLASS, COLLECTIVE AND/ OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING, SUCH AS IN THE FORM OF A PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION AGAINST THE OTHER. Further, unless both you and SEA agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding.

Liability Disclaimer

THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE MAY INCLUDE INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN. SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THE SITE AT ANY TIME.

SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THIS INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE SITE, WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE OR RELATED SERVICES, THE PROVISION OF OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SITE, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE SITE, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE OR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME STATES/JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY PORTION OF THE SITE, OR WITH ANY OF THESE TERMS OF USE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE SITE.

Termination/Access Restriction

SEA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your access to the Site and the related services or any portion thereof at any time, without notice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, this agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Texas and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Texas in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of the Site. Use of the Site is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these Terms, including, without limitation, this section.

You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and SEA as a result of this agreement or use of the Site. SEA's performance of this agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this agreement is in derogation of SEA's right to comply with governmental, court and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the Site or information provided to or gathered by SEA with respect to such use. If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect.

Unless otherwise specified herein, this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the user and SEA with respect to the Site and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between the user and SEA with respect to the Site. A printed version of this agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. It is the express wish to the parties that this agreement and all related documents be written in English.

Changes to Terms

SEA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change the Terms under which the Site is offered. The most current version of the Terms will supersede all previous versions. SEA encourages you to periodically review the Terms to stay informed of our updates.

Contact Us

SEA welcomes your questions or comments regarding the Terms:

Switch Energy Alliance
10900 Stonelake Boulevard, Building 2, Suite 100
Austin, TX 78759

Email Address:
info@switchenergyalliance.org

 

Effective as of January 01, 2020

Privacy Policy

Protecting your private information is our priority. This Statement of Privacy applies to www.switchon.org and Switch Energy Alliance and governs data collection and usage. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, unless otherwise noted, all references to Switch Energy Alliance include www.switchon.org and SEA. The SEA website is a energy education site. By using the SEA website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

In order to better provide you with products and services offered on our Site, SEA may collect personally identifiable information, such as your:

  • First and Last Name
  • Email Address

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through SEA’s public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others.

We do not collect any personal information about you unless you voluntarily provide it to us. However, you may be required to provide certain personal information to us when you elect to use certain products or services available on the Site. These may include: (a) registering for an account on our Site; (b) entering a sweepstakes or contest sponsored by us or one of our partners; (c) signing up for special offers from selected third parties; (d) sending us an email message; (e) submitting your credit card or other payment information when ordering and purchasing products and services on our Site. To wit, we will use your information for, but not limited to, communicating with you in relation to services and/or products you have requested from us. We also may gather additional personal or non-personal information in the future.

Use of your Personal Information

SEA collects and uses your personal information to operate its website(s) and deliver the services you have requested.

SEA may also use your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from SEA and its affiliates.

Sharing Information with Third Parties

SEA does not sell, rent or lease its user lists to third parties.

SEA may share data with trusted partners to help perform statistical analysis, send you email, provide user support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to SEA, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

SEA may disclose your personal information, without notice, if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on SEA or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of SEA; and/or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of SEA, or the public.

Tracking User Behavior

SEA may keep track of the websites and pages our users visit within SEA, in order to determine what SEA services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content to users whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area. Collected data is never sold or used for advertising purposes.

Automatically Collected Information

Information we automatically collect when visiting an SEA website includes the follows:

  • IP address
  • Location and timezone information
  • Device information
  • Web browser information
  • Page view statistics
  • Video view statistics
  • Browsing history
  • Usage information
  • Cookies and other tracking technologies (e.g. user sessions, pixel tags, etc.)
  • Log data (e.g. access times, access duration, etc.)

Information is used for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the SEA website.

User Account Privacy

Our company values the privacy of our users and takes appropriate measures to protect their personal information. We understand that some users may want their personal information to be de-identified or disassociated from their account or deleted entirely, and we have developed policies to address these requests.

User Account Deletion Request

If a user wishes to delete their account entirely, including all associated data, they may login to their account, access their account settings and delete their own account. Alternatively, they may submit a request to our support team at classroom.support@switchon.org. We will review the request and take appropriate action to delete their entire account as well as all personal information as soon as possible.

User Account Data Retention

We will retain user data only for as long as necessary to provide our services and comply with legal or contractual obligations. Once the data is no longer necessary for these purposes, we will take appropriate steps to de-identify, disassociate or delete the data.

User Account Third-Party Sharing

We will not share user data with third parties except as required by law or as necessary to provide our services. In such cases, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that the third party protects the user's personal information in accordance with our privacy policy.

User Account Data Inquiry

If you have any questions or concerns about our user account data, please contact our support team at classroom.support@switchon.org.

Use of Cookies

The SEA website may use “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize SEA pages, or register with SEA site or services, a cookie helps SEA to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same SEA website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the SEA features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the SEA services or websites you visit.

Links

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.

Security of your Personal Information

SEA uses technical safeguards designed to secure your personal information and protect against unauthorized access to or alteration of your personal information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Transmission of all Site information including sensitive information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). While we strive to protect your personal information, you acknowledge that: (a) there are security and privacy limitations inherent to the Internet which are beyond our control; and (b) security, integrity, and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through this Site cannot be guaranteed.

Children Under Thirteen

If you are under the age of thirteen, you must ask your parent or guardian for permission to use this website. If you are a parent and you have questions regarding our data collection practices, please contact us using the information provided at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Email Communications

From time to time, SEA may contact you via email for the purpose of providing newsletters, announcements, promotional offers, alerts, confirmations, surveys, and/or other general communication. In order to improve our Services, we may receive a notification when you open an email from SEA or click on a link therein.

If you would like to stop receiving communications via email from SEA, you may opt out of such communications by following the instructions on the email..

External Data Storage Sites

We may store your data on servers provided by third party hosting vendors with whom we have contracted.

Changes to this Statement

SEA reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account, by placing a prominent notice on our site, and/or by updating any privacy information on this page. Your continued use of the Site and/or Services available through this Site after such modifications will constitute your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Privacy Policy; and (b) agreement to abide and be bound by that Policy.

Contact Information

SEA welcomes your questions or comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that SEA has not adhered to this Statement, please contact SEA at:

Switch Energy Alliance
10900 Stonelake Boulevard, Building 2, Suite 100
Austin, TX 78759

Email Address:
info@switchenergyalliance.org

 

Effective as of January 1, 2020