[BobbyJo]

Not really. The reason coal was so popular was because you didn't really need any specialized infrastructure. It is a solid you can just ship using the same trains and trucks you use for TVs and apples. So you're really only giving up the mines and power plants.

[kibwen]

This seems to be arguing that the existence of natural gas pipe infrastructure is somehow a benefit of natural gas, rather than a downside. The pipes are an expense, to say nothing of the fact that even our best-maintained pipes are leaking 2% of their gas directly into the atmosphere per year (the worst are leaking double or triple that). A hunk of coal that falls off a truck doesn't contribute to emissions; a leaky methane pipe does, which can actually make natgas plants overall worse for emissions than coal.

[ZeroGravitas]

Coal mining is also a major source of methane emissions:

https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2023/stra...

[BobbyJo]

Not at all. In another comment I make a similar statement to yours, I'm just pointing out that the coal:methane comparison doesn't make sense.