To follow-on to my post from yesterday, I want to highlight a video put together by the folks at Energy in Depth that notes the amazing potential for natural gas from shale to lower CO2 emissions. As EID points out, “This Earth Day, the United States has a lot to celebrate.”

Spend a few minutes watching a number of prominent officials in Washington extoll the emissions-reducing virtues of shale gas.

(Click here to watch video)

Among the quotes and citations:

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy: “Natural gas, being abundant, has been a game-changer” in terms of reducing emissions, something that had been “very hard to get our arms around for many decades.”

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (VA):  “We’ve been improving our emissions in this country without agreeing to the Kyoto Accords, without congressional action, because of innovation in the natural gas area.”

President Obama: “We should strengthen our position as the top natural gas producer because, in the medium term, at least, it not only can provide safe, cheap power, it can help reduce our carbon emissions.”

Over the last few years, the substitution of natural gas for coal to generate electricity has helped lower overall CO2 emissions to levels not seen since the mid-1990s, when our nation’s economy and our energy demand were considerably smaller. That’s profoundly good news.

The video wraps up with a quote from UC-Berkeley professor Richard Muller, author of Energy for Future Presidents, and his daughter Elizabeth. The two recently authored a report entitled Why Every Serious Environmentalist Should Favor Fracking.

The Mullers’ conclusion? “Environmentalists who oppose the development of shale gas and fracking are making a tragic mistake.”