Energy Tomorrow Blog
Family Budgets, Home Heating and the Environmental Benefit of Natural Gas
natural gas heat consumers renewable energy
John D. Siciliano
Posted January 16, 2020
Natural gas can’t be beat when it comes to its superior performance in heating a home, especially when compared to heat pumps and other appliances that rely solely on electricity.
Natural gas-powered appliances are both more cost-effective and environmentally friendly for homeowners when compared to their all-electric counterparts, according to consumer studies and government reports.
So, why are some groups campaigning to ban homeowners from using natural gas in favor of these more expensive alternatives?
Affordable Natural Gas and Bettering Low-Income Americans’ Lives
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Mark Green
Posted May 29, 2019
The headline of the opinion piece in the Orange County Register caught my eye – and should get the attention of everyone in this country:
“Fracking saves low-income Americans’ lives”
The article is based on research published earlier this year, which calculated that lower heating costs associated with surging domestic natural gas production averted 11,000 winter deaths in the U.S. each winter from 2005 to 2010.
Read on for details, but this research makes the critically important connection between abundant energy and Americans’ well-being.
Serve Consumers; Build Natural Gas Pipelines
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Mark Green
Posted April 1, 2019
We get it: Folks with some environmental groups don’t like plentiful, affordable natural gas. It doesn’t fit their definition of “clean energy” – which is odd, given the fact that clean natural gas is the main reason U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector are at their lowest level in a generation. And natural gas is winning in the marketplace because it’s plentiful and affordable, which consumers like.
Infrastructure and Harnessing U.S. Shale Energy
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Mark Green
Posted January 28, 2016
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that a number of recently completed and soon-to-be-completed pipeline projects are expected to increase access to natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions, providing valuable linkage between production centers and consumers or export terminals.
We see the increase in natural gas pipeline capacity in the Northeast region, which is particularly critical because the Northeast has suffered negative effects from energy infrastructure limitations. EIA estimates that Northeast residents paid up to 68 percent more for electricity than the national average in the winter of 2014, while industrial users paid up to 105 percent more for electricity than the national average. Indeed, greater capacity is key to staving off economic penalties that could stem from insufficient infrastructure. One study estimated that failure to expand natural gas and electricity infrastructure in the Northeast could cost the region’s households and businesses $5.4 billion in higher energy costs and more than 167,000 private-sector and construction jobs between 2016 and 2020.
So this is good news for the Northeast, but also other regions.