Global gas reserves have been steadily increasing, despite increasing consumption. 4 Coal fired power stations are located in many parts of the world, including western Europe, the United States, the former Soviet Union, China, India, and eastern Europe. In some areas, wind capacity would also provide an effective and economical offset for CO 2 emissions. One drawback to increased use of natural gas is that natural gas pipelines add to methane emissions due to small leaks in the pipelines. One estimate of such leaks is 0.8 percent of natural gas use.
Landfill gas is used on a limited basis in many places to produce electricity or fuel for heating.
For instance, landfill gas from the Fresh Kills landfill, where the municipal waste from New York City is dumped, provide heating fuel for 14,000 homes. It is not difficult to postulate some distant future when renewable sources of energy might be economical to meet basic energy needs. The first thing to note is that neither energy efficiency nor renewable energy sources have had anywhere near the level of research and development effort and investment as fossil fuels or nuclear energy. The failed plutonium breeder reactor technology alone, which is just one part of nuclear fission energy, has had far more resources poured into it than wind and solar energy combined. Secondly, crucial problems in energy efficiency are not even recognized by policy-makers, much less are they objects of substantial research and development.