Throughout the 2010s, natural gas was portrayed as a near-miraculous energy source that could fight climate change, lower energy costs, and clean up the environment. It would be a “bridge fuel” that would help eradicate coal and provide the on-demand power that renewable sources like solar and wind could not.

“The natural gas boom has led to cleaner power, and greater energy independence,” President Obama boasted in a 2012 debate with Mitt Romney. “We’re encouraging it and working with the industry.” Much of the rest of the world took the same approach. Europe bet heavily on natural gas—especially Germany, which regeared its whole energy system around gas from Russia, thanks in part to years of effort from former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who has long worked as a lobbyist for the Russian energy companies and is close friends with Vladimir Putin.

A decade later, the supposed dream of natural gas […]