While Americans face near-record inflation, politically motivated gas bans and the Department of Energy’s furnace efficiency standards are being advanced despite the significant burdens they’d inflict on consumers and homeowners.
“At this moment when natural gas is imperative for our country’s and the world’s stability, placing enormous costs on everyday Americans is wrong-headed at best,” American Gas Association President & CEO Karen Harbert said.
Not only is natural gas the most efficient way to achieve economy-wide decarbonization, it’s also the consumer-preferred fuel source for household energy needs. Yet these rules encourage switching to electricity, which is roughly 3 times more expensive than ever-reliable natural gas, as a DOE notice cited in March.
From production to customer-use, the natural gas delivery system carries a 91% efficiency rate compared to the electric system’s 36%.
Moreover, using natural gas for household energy needs produces 22% fewer CO2 emissions than all-electric homes, according to an American Gas Association (AGA) report. The report also tallies policy-driven residential electrification would drive up electricity costs anywhere from 38-46% for Americans.
It comes as no surprise, then, that “natural gas is what sells,” a house-flipper in Massachusetts told The Wall Street Journal last year. “Unless I’m forced to build an electric house, people don’t want it.”
The City of San Francisco, one of the first cities to consider a ban like Los Angeles’, calculated it would cost upwards of $5 billion to retrofit all residential buildings in the county to electricity. And it is not wrong to suggest this number is significantly underestimated.
“A key barrier to electrical retrofits of San Francisco residences…is that they would place a financial burden on property owners and/or the City and County of San Francisco,” the report states. In Pennsylvania, several municipalities are considering whether to ban new natural gas hookups as part of their local climate action plans, despite evidence that shows doing so is a net-negative for the environment.
These policies are just the latest squeeze state and federal lawmakers have placed on domestic natural gas and oil development. Burdensome taxes, regulatory uncertainty, federal leasing bans, and permitting delays are among the many policies that have held back production at a time when Americans – and our allies across the globe – are increasingly turning to U.S.-produced natural gas to reduce emissions, enhance energy security, and grow local economies.
“Rest assured, the inability to predictably plan, invest, build and operate natural gas facilities has curtailed market supply and contributed to the inflationary pain facing Pennsylvania residents,” MSC’s Pat Henderson told the Pennsylvania House Majority Policy Committee in a hearing.
America’s natural gas industry is working hard to responsibly produce and deliver affordable, reliable energy across the entire energy value chain. Market-driven investments and continued innovation and evolution – not forced mandates – are what drive tangible change.
In fact, thanks to the leadership of Appalachian producers, this region has the lowest emissions intensity of major shale oil and gas producing areas in the country.
As more natural gas is produced and used, particularly for power generation, U.S. climate progress is occurring alongside significant consumer savings. Pennsylvania has seen a 37% reduction in CO2 tied to the power sector over the last five years, according to the non-partisan Independent Fiscal Office, as natural gas expanded to 52% of Pennsylvania’s generation market share.
“We are proud of the advancements our industry has made in air quality and environmental stewardship, and we remain committed to further reducing emissions in the fastest, most efficient way possible,” as Marcellus Shale Coalition President Dave Callahan wrote to the region’s congressional delegation.
