Last time on Dread.

All of a sudden, they are public enemy number one.

They are now big coal.

They are passing preemption legislation throughout United States.

They are a climate villain and this is a new experience for many of those lobbyists.

That was Charlie Spatz, a researcher with the Energy Policy Institute,

talking about the gas industry grappling with its new role as a climate villain.

If you're somewhat new to the climate issue or even if you're not,

it might be surprising to hear that the gas industry has historically thought of itself as a

climate hero. I myself remember falling for it way back when 15 years ago or so,

I was living in San Francisco and would see buses touting themselves as clean emissions vehicles,

running on natural gas. And I remember thinking, oh, that's good.

The early marketing of gas as green really worked for a long time.

How is that possible when gas is a fossil fuel?

I know. Well, a whole lot of people who were concerned about climate change 15 or 20 years ago

were very much on board with the idea of fossil gas as a quote-unquote bridge fuel.

But natural gas should be a bridge to renewables and that's healthy and that's good.

That's clean energy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

But natural gas also can play a prominent clean role.

The fact that we're transitioning from coal to natural gas means less greenhouse gases.

If you're concerned about pollution, if you're concerned about CO2 emissions,

if you're concerned that this country imports two-thirds of its oil,

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