The very definition of “Progressivism” (nice Fascism): it’s for your own good
Your Gas Stove Is Bad for You and the Planet
We have some good news that sounds like bad news: Your gas stove has to go.
We know how you’ll feel reading those words. We used to love cooking with gas, too. But if our society is going to solve the climate crisis, one of the things we must do is stop burning gas in our buildings.
Nobody is going to shed a tear about having to switch to a more efficient furnace or water heater. But people feel emotional about gas stoves, and the gas industry knows it. Seeing this fight coming, the industry is already issuing propaganda with gauzy pictures of blue flames.
What the gas companies will not tell you is that your stove is a danger not just to the world’s climate but also to your own family’s health. We’ll explain in a moment.
First, here’s the larger situation: The need to tackle climate change is beyond urgent. We are running out of time. Within the next decade we need to cut climate pollution in half in the United States, roughly, to do our fair part in preserving a livable planet.
Burning gas is now a bigger source of such pollution than burning coal, and nearly a third of that gas is burned in homes and commercial buildings. But despite the rising chorus of climate pledges by state and local governments, none of them has really tackled the problem of gas in buildings. In fact, gas companies are still being allowed to spend billions extending new lines, connections that will have to be capped off long before the end of their useful lives if we are to meet our climate goals.
OK, so, let’s say this happens (and the only way to make it happen is through Government banning them): where does all the electricity for non-gas stoves come from? Warmists are mostly against nuclear. Extreme enviros, who tend to be Warmists, attempt to block all attempts at hydro-electric dams, which are only viable in certain areas, and want existing ones torn down. They sue over transmission lines from solar and wind farms, and also sue over wind and solar farms. So, how do we power electric stoves?
Why do all-electric homes make sense now? Because technology has come to the rescue, in the form of devices called heat pumps. They run on electricity, but far more efficiently than the electric appliances of our parents’ generation. So if we start installing them now, then as the electric grid gets greener, our buildings will be contributing less and less to climate change.
You might never have heard of heat pumps, but you already have one in your home. A heat pump is the core technology in your refrigerator. It is basically a loop involving a pump and a compressor that sucks heat out of the interior and blows it into the kitchen, and it can do this even when the interior of your refrigerator is colder than the air in the room.
A heat pump can replace both your furnace and your air conditioner. In the winter, it sucks heat in from the outside, even when the weather is cold, and blows it into your house. In the summer, a heat pump runs in reverse, cooling the house. Highly efficient heat-pump water heaters are also widely available.
If they were so great they would be placed in new homes at a high rate. Of course, there is the problem where most heat pumps can only work down to a temperature of 25-30F, then you have to have your furnace kick in, so, you need both, and a heat pump is way more expensive. Further, heat pumps aren’t even close to being as good as cooling as an AC, nor as inexpensive. One day, perhaps.
Regardless, again, the only way to really make this happen is through government force.
