Over the years as it grew more powerful, the climate cult's assault on fossil fuels typically left no room for compromise. Ending all reliance on anything but so-called renewables was the position that the energy industry and the government were expected to embrace, with various just-around-the-corner end dates arbitrarily set to bury the fossil fuel industry once and for all.

But for the climate change zealots, one pesky fly in the ointment made such goals clearly unreasonable – natural gas. Instead of slowly and cooperatively dimming its flame until it was extinguished, natural gas by necessity has continued to flourish.

Fracking technology made natural gas extraction easier and more affordable than ever. Its relative cleanliness compared to other fossil fuels made it more difficult for environmental extremists to reasonably rail against it. And industries realized that there was no more effective, reliable and affordable energy source for the electricity grid than natural gas.

Of course, the most extreme environmentalists did not let the facts sway them, continuing to demand an immediate end to all fossil fuels. But those advocates of a move toward "green" energy who were interested in maintaining a level of credibility began to somewhat soften their stance. Demonstrating at least a slight grasp on reality, they began to refer to natural gas as a "bridge" to a renewable future.

One example of such thinking came from Yale Climate Connections, an initiative of the Yale Center for Environmental Communication based at Yale University. In a 2016 article presenting the pros and cons of natural gas, climate journalist Bruce Lieberman advised, "Consider natural gas a 'bridge' fuel for a growing renewable energy economy," and quoted a report from the Joint Institute for Strategic Analysis that noted that natural gas and renewable energy "can help contribute to a low-carbon, resilient, and reliable electrical grid by diversifying the electricity mix and hedging risk associated with market and policy uncertainties."

Lieberman, though, seemed skeptical that natural gas would keep pace with renewables to jointly account for future electricity generation shares. He pointed to California, where "the current oversupply of natural gas and a boom in solar, wind, and other renewable energy sectors 'has depressed power prices and threatened the viability of natural gas plants,'" as he noted Reuters reporting at the time.