Electrification alone will be insufficient to decarbonize the energy sector, said speakers at the LDC Gas Forums Northeast event in late July.

Enbridge Inc.’s Steve Elliott, director of business development, told the Boston conference that about 80% of the world’s energy is currently consumed as a molecule, with the remaining 20% consumed as an electron.

He explained that, “replacing all of this molecule-based consumption with electricity while maintaining redundancy [and] reliability that gas provides during peak load in particular, will be extremely challenging to do both economically and practically.”

Therefore, the natural gas industry must decarbonize the molecule-based share of energy production and consumption in order to achieve climate change...