Democratic US senators and environmental groups launched an effort to prompt gas utilities to leave the American Gas Association because of its opposition to building electrification, saying the trade group has engaged in a disinformation campaign similar to that of Big Tobacco in the past.
Gas utility customers should not have to support American Gas Association (AGA) advocacy and lobbying when they pay their gas bills, lawmakers and officials with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Gas Leaks Project, the Washington Interfaith Network and the Sierra Club said during an April 9 news conference.
The indoor air quality effects of gas stoves have become a politically charged topic on Capitol Hill, but in this latest effort, the senators and groups claimed that the AGA knew of the risks associated with gas stoves dating back to the 1970s.
They said the AGA sought to counter scientific studies about natural gas appliances exacerbating climate change, working with the public relations firms used by tobacco companies. The Gas Leaks Project created a website for gas utility customers that reveals if their utilities are AGA members and encourages them to take action to learn more about AGA advocacy and lobbying.
In an April 9 statement, AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert said gas utilities have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 70% over the past 30 years. Harbert took issue with groups spreading what she described as misinformation and "promoting ill-informed energy policy."
"Any claim that we have not been a leader in advancing environmental goals is simply not accurate," Harbert said of the investor-owned gas utilities trade group.
Appeal to gas customers
At the news conference with environmental groups, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said no one should be forced to pay for anti-electrification efforts every time they pay a gas utility bill. "We must keep gas in the ground and stop disinformation," he said.
The senator likened certified natural gas designations to "greenwashing" in a recent letter to the US Federal Trade Commission with other lawmakers. Markey urged other gas utilities to follow the lead of New England gas and electric utility parent company Eversource Energy, which left the AGA in 2022 as part of a broad effort to prioritize decarbonization.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said the fossil fuel industry depends on "hydrocarbons and lies" to keep consumers reliant on gas appliances and delay the transition to cleaner resources. Gas is cleaner than coal when examined at the burner tip, but "it gets there through a leaky, poorly maintained system," Whitehouse said of pipeline infrastructure.
Whitehouse said some politicians were kept in "climate denial mode" through "dark money funding" from fossil fuel trade associations. In a plea to urge AGA members to exit the group, the senator said upstanding companies should not want to be associated with such actions.
Other speakers at the news conference pointed to the AGA's support of state laws that oppose building electrification and the group's work that aided in stripping electrification provisions from a final rule recently adopted by the International Code Council (ICC). The rule rejected provisions for electric appliances, rooftop solar facilities and electric vehicle charging.
Before final adoption in March, the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code was on track to include electrification provisions in a base code after garnering support during a multiyear process. The ICC board, however, made an eleventh-hour decision to reject those provisions.
The AGA, in a March 20 statement, said the ICC board made the right decision to remove the "deeply problematic provisions" from the base code.
'Hooked on fossil fuels'
Xavier Boatright, deputy legislative director at the Sierra Club, said the AGA has been "using Big Tobacco tactics" to block building electrification and "keep us hooked on fossil fuels that are bad for our health and bad for our wallets."
Barbara Gottlieb, director of environment and health at Physicians for Social Responsibility, said the AGA "funded their own research to counter the truth" and cover up the effects associated with nitrogen dioxide levels and poor indoor air quality, which can cause respiratory problems and cancer.
The AGA has challenged building electrification plans at the state and federal levels while asserting that gas utility members are making progress in reducing methane leaks and greenhouse gas emissions.
In an April 3 statement on the US Energy Department's blueprint for the buildings sector, the AGA said the DOE report calling for electrification of 75% of all space heating and 25% of water heating by 2035 is unrealistic and expensive. The DOE blueprint released earlier this month "lays out a plan that would impose higher costs on families and businesses and decrease the reliability of the energy system with little documented environmental benefits," according to the statement.
The AGA said households that use natural gas save money compared with all-electric households, with average annual costs that are lower by an estimated $1,132. The trade group said emissions reductions are poised to accelerate with increased use of renewable natural gas and hydrogen. The growth of gas-fired generation means that the emissions reduction associated with building electrification would be minimal, the AGA added.
The AGA issued a 2018 study on the high costs associated with policy-driven building electrification mandates. The study from consulting firm ICF found that US household energy costs would increase under policy-driven electrification of houses, and that power generation needs would be significant and present grid reliability challenges. Electrifying all residential gas space heating could nearly double the US power grid's peak demand, according to the study.
