(Gas stove clicking)
- The gas stove.
It's the workhorse of millions of kitchens.
And for generations,
we've been sold the idea
that it's the best cooking method.
- [TV Narrator] The world of tomorrow is cooking with gas.
- [TV Advertisement] I just love that
the modern styling of the stove and gas range.
- But over the last few years,
that narrative has been shaken.
There's a growing push to phase out gas
connections in new construction.
- [News Announcer] New buildings will now
be required to use electricity.
- The gas industry, isn't going down
without a fight and it's getting ugly.
And your stove is at the center of it all.
- There's no doubt about it.
Modern matchless gas ranges
make you a better cook.
- Natural gas has been used
in homes since the late 1700's.
When it was primarily used for lighting.
Today it powers furnaces, water heaters, stoves
and other home appliances.
And as early as the 1930's
the gas industry has led massive
direct to consumer campaigns,
promoting gas as a clean reliable energy source
to out-compete electricity.
Over the years, the campaigns have really zeroed
in on one target, the kitchen
♪ Gas. Cooking with gas. ♪
♪ Cooking with gas. ♪
- This marketed image of superior gas stoves
has been hugely successful.
More than a third of Americans
are still using gas stoves today.
In some areas, about 70% of households cook with gas.
♪ Cooking with gas ♪
- We've been trained to have a blind spot around natural gas
starting with the name itself.
- [Panama] First and foremost, we should probably discuss
the name of it, Natural gas.
I mean, it has been perhaps one of the most
successful marketing campaigns that we've seen
from a large industry to call what is really
a dangerous pollutant, something natural.
- That's Panama Bartholomy, Executive director
of the Building Decarbonization Coalition
which is working to fully electrify
new homes and buildings.
Panama says that the gas industry
has long sold itself
as a cleaner energy alternative.
And until recently even some environmental groups
promoted it as a bridge fuel
to smoothly transition our grid
off coal and oil.
Studies have also shown that most Americans
perceive natural gas as less harmful
than other fossil fuels.
And it's the most positively viewed
fossil fuel internationally.
- And all the messaging around gas is better,
gas is a bridge fuel,
gas is clean.
It was just like music to the ears for people
that wanted to continue to burn gas inside buildings.
- But that messaging, isn't exactly accurate.
Let's start with something
that often gets glossed over
what natural gas actually is.
- [David] So natural gas is a fossil fuel
that is primarily composed of methane.
So it's used as an energy source
but methane is also a powerful
greenhouse gas with over 80 times the warming potential
of carbon dioxide over 20 years.
- That's David Lyon from the Environmental Defense Fund.
His research helped reveal the true cost
of relying on natural gas.
All fossil fuels released carbon dioxide
when they're burned.
Which is the greenhouse gas that gets the most attention.
Well, natural gas does release less carbon dioxide
when it's burned, that doesn't necessarily mean
it's actually much cleaner.
One big reason?
The way gas gets to our homes.
This process produces a lot of fugitive leaks.
Methane can leak out of gas wells,
processing plants,
and even pipes.
And they're pretty hard to track.
- Typically methane emissions are invisible
to the naked eye but in
with a special infrared camera
you can see the emissions.
So we deployed a crew
with a camera on a helicopter to survey
over 8,000 well pads across the country.
And they looked for large emissions
of methane and other pollutants.
- What they found were hundreds of super emitter sites,
leaking methane, making up most of
the oil and gas industries methane emissions every year.
All that leaking methane can be enough to cancel out
the perceived environmental benefits
of switching from coal to natural gas.
But in spite of all these concerns
the use of natural gas is actually booming.
In 2019, natural gas made up 32%
of energy consumption in the U.S
and globally it's the fastest growing
fossil fuel.
That's partly because of the surge
and hydraulic fracturing or fracking
which is used to extract
hard to reach gas reserves
by blasting water chemicals and sand
deep into rock formations.
Fracking has helped the U.S
produce more natural gas
than any other country in the world.
But it's also gotten a lot
of backlash because it can
contaminate drinking water
and cause even more methane to leak into the air.
(gas stove clicking)
Finally, once gas makes it all the way into your stove
and out of burner, the problems don't end.
research suggests that a gas stove can produce
twice as much harmful particulate matter
as an electric stove.
Other research has found
that levels of carbon monoxide
can be up to three to six times higher
in homes with a gas stove.
So it's clear that the costs of extracting
and using natural gas are much higher
than we thought only a couple of decades ago.
But thanks to all this new research,
a number of cities are starting to take
major steps to move away from natural gas.
In 2019, Berkeley, California
became the first city in the U.S
to ban natural gas hookups in new construction.
And though a number of cities have
followed suit across the U.S
there's been one major pain point.
Yep. Yet again,
it's the stove.
- The biggest issue that we found
and we interviewed in 2019
dozens of home builders,
from up and down California
and what they told us,
the number one issue is cooking.
- In some cities, all those years of pro gas messaging
and millions of dollars of lobbying are waiting out.
For example, in 2019,
the city council of Seattle proposed
banning natural gas in all
new single family homes.
This would have included gas ranges
but after a backlash from utility companies
the proposal was changed to not include
gas cooking in the ban.
The city council passed it this year.
Lots of people really, truly love their gas stoves,
and I get it.
You can get better temperature control
from an open flame.
But there are actually pretty evenly matched
with modern induction stoves,
even sometimes falling short.
- We know that induction cooking is better.
It's three times more powerful than gas cooking,
it's got twice the control,
doesn't have any pollution,
it's way safer for children.
And for older, for older citizens
- Induction stoves regularly, top consumer reports
but only account for 5%
of all ranges sold in the U.S.
This might be because gas stove
tops are usually cheaper to purchase,
but they might not be cheaper in the long run.
- And induction stoves are so efficient.
And even though gas is cheaper
than the electricity, the overall monthly bills
can be around the same or even cheaper
in all electric homes.
You know with the pillars have told us
is we need a massive campaign to educate people
about induction cooking.
- It's clear that emissions from natural gas are
making the climate crisis worse,
plugging up all those fugitive methane leaks
could help a lot.
But many experts say that won't be enough
to combat climate change.
In the long run, the only sure-fire way
to get rid of all the emissions from natural gas
is to stop using it in the first place.
And that's hard to do if people are unwilling
to give up their gas stoves.
(gas stove switched off)
Thanks so much for watching.
If you're still curious about
what the future of energy
is going to look like,
check out our video about virtual power plants.