Gas stoves are a major source of dangerous indoor air pollution, but they emit only a small portion of the greenhouse gases that warm the climate. Why, then, has he taken such a heated role in climate politics?
The debate resurfaced on January 9, 2023, when Richard Trumka Jr., a member of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, told Bloomberg News that the agency was considering regulating gas stoves because of concerns about their health effects. Plan to consider. “Products that cannot be made safe can be banned,” he said.
Politicians reacted with extreme indignation, putting gas stove ownership on a par the right to bear arms And religious freedom, CPSC Chairman Alexander Hohen-Sarik tried to quell the uproar by saying that he “is not banning gas stoves” and that his agency “has no proceedings to do so.” A White House spokesman said that neither Biden administration supports the ban.
Nevertheless, congressional Republicans rushed to the barricades, introducing bills with titles such as the Guard America’s Stove (GAS) Act and the Obsessively Willful Energy (STOVE) Act.
The skirmish may sound like a tempest in a teapot, but it reveals important contours of the battleground on which climate politics is waged. As I explain in my book “Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future,” gas stoves matter to the climate and the gas industry because they are the gateway to major residential uses of natural gas. work as a tool. Gas: heating and hot water.
serious health effects
Direct effects from gas stoves are a far more urgent concern for human health than for Earth’s climate. Gas stoves are a major indoor source of nitrogen dioxide, or NO, which can cause or worsen respiratory illnesses in people exposed to them.
For example, scientific studies show that living in a home with a gas stove increases the risk of asthma in children by almost a third and contributes to pulmonary disease in adults.
The climate doesn’t care what fuel we use for cooking. Gas stoves account for just 0.1% of US greenhouse gas emissions, even accounting for recent findings of larger-than-expected household methane leaks. They aren’t even a big part of fuel sales, burning just 3% of the natural gas consumed in homes.
Some experts say that the health risks from a gas stove can be compared to living with a smoker.
Constraints in Household Electrification
The importance of gas stoves to the climate becomes clear in the context of the Biden administration’s goal of net-zero US greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This goal can only be achieved by curbing the use of fossil fuels in the economy, including households.
Installing more efficient furnaces, better insulation and smarter thermostats are helpful first steps, but getting closer to zero will require switching to electricity for space heating and water heating. In the US, 46% of homes use natural gas as their main source of heat, 40% use electricity, 10% use other fuels such as heating oil or propane, and 4% are unheated. . For water heating, the percentages are 47% gas, 47% electricity and 6% other fuels.
Today, electric and gas heating have similar carbon footprints, as about 60% of US electricity is generated from fossil fuels and many homes use inefficient electric resistance heaters. But the emissions intensity of electricity is declining rapidly as coal plants close and solar and wind power expand.
President Joe Biden has set a goal of 100% clean electricity nationally by 2035. Although current federal policies fall short of that goal, a growing number of states have committed to 100% clean electricity by 2050 or earlier.
Natural gas is much more difficult to decarbonize than electricity. Low-carbon fuels such as biogas and hydrogen that can be blended with natural gas are likely to remain scarce and expensive.
Furthermore, advanced technologies enable electric heat pumps to heat both air and water far more efficiently than traditional electric or gas furnaces and water heaters. This is why the various scenarios for decarbonizing energy envision a major shift to electric heat pumps. The transition is well underway in Europe and is starting in the US
Replacing existing gas furnaces and water heaters with electric heat pumps can be costly and complicated, although incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act can help. But if new homes are built completely electric from the start, they avoid the cost of installing natural gas hookups, and emit far less air pollution and fewer greenhouse gases over the homes’ entire lifetime.
This schematic shows the key components of a net-zero home that uses renewable energy to generate as much electricity as it consumes. Efficiency Vermont, CC BY-ND
New York City and more than 50 towns, cities and counties in California have already banned gas hookups in new buildings. Elsewhere, 20 states have put a stop to banning natural gas.
The gas stove is a big reason.
power of a slogan
Michael Colvin of the Environmental Defense Fund told me in an interview for his book, “Most people don’t care about how their water gets hot or how their heater works, but the Viking stove in the kitchen, people emotional attachment.” “Confronting Climate Gridlock.”
That emotional attachment makes Stowe a flashpoint in the fight over climate policy.
Bruce Niles of Climate Imperative told me in a 2020 interview, “Cooking is the hill the gas industry wants to fight over.” “They’ll say, ‘Do you want the government to take away your gas stove which makes you a great cook?’
The American Gas Association has promoted the notion that gas stoves make efficient cooks since the 1930s, when it introduced the advertising slogan “You’re now cooking with gas”. An AGA executive struck up a pose with the writers for comedian Bob Hope. It was soon picked up by comedian Jack Benny and even Daffy Duck. The phrase has also appeared in social media endorsements and hashtags over time.
‘Cookin’ with Gas’, a 1988 commercial produced by National Fuel Gas.
Gas burners offer more control than many stoves with electric coils, especially older models, which can be slow to heat up and cool down. Today, however, many cooks, consumers and experts say that gas is no longer the obvious choice. Magnetic induction cooktops, which cook by using electricity to generate a magnetic field, heat up faster, control temperature more precisely and use less energy than other stoves.
“It’s a big misconception that electric ranges don’t cook as well as gas,” Shanika Whitehurst, a member of Consumer Reports’ research and testing team, said in a recent article. “But technology has improved to the point where electric and especially induction ranges and cooktops cook every bit as well, if not better, than gas.” Consumer Reports ranks induction and some traditional electric stoves among its top-rated models.
Homes built today will far exceed Biden’s 2050 net-zero goal. And the longer the gas-is-better myth persists, the harder it will be to fully electrify new homes from the start. As I see it, if “cooking with gas” keeps us tying new homes to the natural gas grid for decades to come, our health, climate and wallets will pay the price.
