Fact: Natural Gas is NOT clean and green

Many people think that methane, which is marketed as natural gas, is a clean burning fuel. This could not be farther from the truth. In fact, burning methane for heat accounts for roughly one third of the total US carbon emissions annually and is a major source of air pollution - especially in urban areas. Gas appliances for heating buildings and water produce more outdoor air pollution than gas power plants, cement plants and oil refineries.

Burning gas for cooking is also dangerous to our health. Gas stoves produce dangerous indoor air pollution that increases risks of asthma - especially for children.

Data shows that methane leakage is much greater than has been estimated in the past, and some estimates of the true amount of leakage shows that methane is not substantially less carbon polluting than coal. This leakage comes from the wells where methane is extracted and all the way along distribution pipes to our cities and includes the pipes and appliances that leak methane in our homes. Fracking has led to even greater leakage of methane. That image of the clean blue flame in the ads distorts the truth about this dangerous source of carbon emissions.

The gas industry will often claim that burning natural gas in our homes is more efficient than burning natural gas to make electricity and then converting that electricity to heat. This can be true if electric resistance heating is being used but with heat pumps, this is not a true assertion. Electric resistance heating is how a toaster works, and until recently they were the only form of electric heating available. This method takes a lot of electricity which means that the emissions at the electric generation plant to supply that electricity are quite significant. But now electric heat pumps and water heaters use 3 - 5 times less electricity than resistance heating. They are so efficient, they require much less energy to heat your home or your water. Studies show that heat pumps create fewer carbon emissions than gas furnaces everywhere in the US.

Fact: Renewable Natural Gas does not stand up to scrutiny

You may be hearing promotions from your gas utility that so called “Renewable Natural Gas” will eliminate emissions from using gas in our homes. This is not true. This article from Rewiring America goes into details about why renewable natural gas, which is often captured methane from municipal waste, waste water or manure, is not much better than fossil gas and is also not available in sufficient quantities to make much of a difference. This is a marketing campaign to try to delay actions to reduce our reliance on fossil methane.

Finally, if you are using 100% renewable energy to power your heat pump or heat pump water heater - there are zero emissions created. It is not possible to burn natural gas with zero emissions.