[rbliss]

Another point others haven't made, which Terraform Industries points out: that using solar to make Natural Gas is going to be the cheapest form of natural gas production.

You can effectively short circuit the existing fossil fuel industry and pull the hydrocarbons from the air instead of the ground to stay carbon neutral. No need to re-invent industry.

[__MatrixMan__]

But if the main problem with industry is that it leaks then maybe you do still have to reinvent it.

[NewJazz]

Seriously, how do you know whether the supply chain is truly using one process to synthesize, vs. Adding/cutting with extracted fuel.

[__MatrixMan__]

On the demand side, I imagine you'd be drawing fuel gas from a rig that's like, in your neighborhood, being powered by the solar panels on your roof. So you'd probably notice if there were tanker trucks showing up to fill it.

On the supply side, you could use things like methane sniffing satellites (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00600-z) to find cases of extraction and tax (at first) or arrest (eventually) those participating in it.

[konschubert]

It doesn’t matter. This isn’t driven by consumer choice, it’s driven by production cost.

At least that’s the idea.