A growing fight is unfolding across the U.S. as cities consider phasing out natural gas for home cooking and heating, citing concerns about climate change, and states push back against these bans.
Proponents of phasing out natural gas say their aim is to reduce planet-warming emissions over time by fully electrifying new homes and buildings as wind and solar farms proliferate throughout the country, making the power grid cleaner.
Homes and businesses account for about 13% of the nation's annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, mostly because natural gas is used in cooking, heating, and washers and dryers.
Opponents in the gas industry counter by citing the higher costs of making many homes fully electric, and pointing to the added security of having a second home energy source to heat and cook with during extreme weather events.
New all-electric homes are cost-competitive with those that use gas in many parts of the country, but retrofits can be considerably more expensive, depending on the existing heating and cooking systems and the cost of effectively converting them.
The Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, in 2019 warned that in California, where gas utilities spend billions of dollars on their systems each year, stranded assets could complicate efforts to move away from gas by saddling customers with higher costs over time.
Southern California Gas Co., a unit of Sempra Energy that is the nation's largest gas utility, opposes bans on new hookups, arguing that customers should have the right to choose.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/battle-brews-over-banning-natural-gas-to-homes-11622334674
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