Category Archives: Energy and Climate Change

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There are still a few customers without electricity in Kentucky

We noted on Monday that thousands and thousands of Kentuckians were still without electricity following the previous Friday’s major windstorms. These weren’t in the mountains of Appalachia, but in the flatter, and wealthier, parts of central and western Kentucky.

Well, guess what? It’s Wednesday evening, and while the number of customers without electricity has certainly dwindled, it hasn’t reached zero yet.

Updated: Will power be restored in Kentucky on Wednesday? Here’s what KU says

by Christopher Leach | Wednesday, March 8, 2023 | 11:24 AM EST

Power restoration efforts in Fayette County along with all of Kentucky are expected to be mostly completed by Wednesday evening, according to Daniel Lowry with LG&E and KU.

The company previously said it expected to have power restored to everyone in Lexington and Louisville by 11 p.m. Wednesday. Lowry said there will likely be some customers without power Thursday morning but most everyone affected by Friday’s major windstorm should get power back by Wednesday evening.

Lowry added that if a resident doesn’t have power by Wednesday evening, it’s because the circuit they’re on was heavily damaged from the storm, which was determined to be the third largest weather event in LG&E and KU’s in the last 20 years, according to Lowry.

According to Lowry, 760 poles were broken from the storm. LG&E and KU also received reports of 3,400 wires down due to the storm.

There’s more at the original.

I probably wouldn’t have written on this, until I saw this story from William Teach of The Pirate’s Cove:

Surprise: Government Inefficiency Slowing Up IRA Spending On Electric Lines

By William Teach | March 8, 2023 | 10:30 AM EST

Not only is the Inflation Reduction Act not reducing inflation, it’s being jammed up because government is slow. And, guess which party is represented the most in the federal and state governments?

Biden’s climate chief: ‘Delays and bottlenecks’ slowing IRA spending

U.S. President Joe Biden’s top climate advisor says the United States needs to build electricity lines at double the current pace, blaming a sluggish permitting process for delaying vital arteries for the nation’s clean energy transition.

“On average, interstate gas pipelines that require environmental impact statements are approved nearly twice as fast as transmission lines requiring the same,” John Podesta told energy executives at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference on Monday. “We don’t have that time.” (snip)

However, when it comes to building new electricity lines and other projects, he describes a permitting process “plagued by delays and bottlenecks.”

“Plenty of delays happen at the state and local levels, and those need to be addressed. But there is plenty that we can do and must do federally,” Podesta said, adding that he and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm are tracking the pace of more than 20 key electricity transmission projects.

There’s more at the original.

While needing government permits to restore previously existing service isn’t slowing down Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas and Electric, I’m old enough to remember when rural electrification was still a thing. No one needed any stinkin’ permits, just string them wires up and get ‘lectricity to the country folks!

But now, as the Biden Administration wants us to electrify our utilities, to get rid of natural gas and propane and heating oil for heating, water heating, and cooking, and to replace gasoline-and-diesel-powered vehicles with plug-in electrics, were going to need a lot more electric capacity, both in generation and transmission. Yet since the 1960s, there have been federal, state, and local regulations designed to preserve nature as much as possible, and putting up power poles and stringing more wires is going to come into conflict with all of that. You can count on thousands of lawsuits seeking to delay additional transmission wiring from the usual suspects.

Unless the new wiring is put underground, a much more expensive and time consuming process, the new wires will be just as vulnerable to severe weather as existing service. We noted in Monday’s article that it wasn’t that cold in the Bluegrass State then, but the weather changed on Tuesday. Monday’s high in the mid 70s turned into highs in the lower 50s, and freezing temperatures overnight, temperature ranges which are normal for this time of year in the Bluegrass State.

Unless there are further problems, KU and LG&E should have power restored to all customers on Thursday, but that still leaves the problem that future storms will knock out power again and again and again.

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The electricity is out in parts of the Bluegrass State

On Friday, March 3rd, a severe windstorm blew through the Bluegrass State. There was some serious damage in several places, but though we had some pretty high winds near where I live, our farm suffered no damage at all. The road leading to our farm saw some trees downed, and one of the parishioners at our church said that her son had seen the roof blown off of his farm equipment storage shed, but, overall, it wasn’t too bad for us.

Then I saw the tweet screen captured on the right.

We didn’t lose power at the farm. It flickered a time or two, but that was it. We did lose the internet for about half an hour.

When I saw Evelyn Schultz’s tweet, I figured that I’d get a more detailed story from what my best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal, so I went to their website. Following a real belly-laugh at the website opening, in which a daily, except for Saturday, newspaper had a heading which still said it was March 3rd, which I screen captured here at 8:10 AM EST on Monday, March 6th, I found this one:

Updated: Major power outages persist across Kentucky. KU explains long Lexington outages

By Taylor Six | Sunday, March 5, 2023 | 9:05 PM EST

More than 100,000 customers throughout Kentucky were still without power Sunday evening as a result of a Friday windstorm – which one power company labeled as the third most damaging weather event in 20 years for their services.

According to the Kentucky Utilities website, Friday’s weather impacted more than 300,000 customers across their service area and brought down 2,500 power lines. It also broke more than 230 utility poles. This windstorm ranks behind the 2009 ice storm and the 2008 windstorm in terms of the number of customers affected and total system impact.

“We have every resource responding to this event, including an additional 1,500 resources from other utilities,” KU said on its website.

As of 10:30 a.m. Sunday, 70,000 KU & LGE customers were still without power statewide, according to Daniel Lowry, a spokesman for KU. In Lexington, he said about 38,000 were still without power.

Read more here.

As I have mentioned several times previously, electricity is our most vulnerable-to-the-weather utility. Water, sewer and natural gas utilities are run through underground pipes, but electricity is delivered via overhead wires. Even in the newer subdivisions in which electric lines are buried, power comes to substations via overhead wires.

The propane fireplace that is our secondary heat source. It sure is nice on really cold days.

Now, it’s not that cold this morning; my weather station told me that it was 38.8º Fahrenheit at 8:00 this morning, but it was slightly below freezing yesterday, at 30.1º F. I’m guessing that by Sunday morning, the people without power and who depended on electric water heaters, weren’t able to enjoy hot showers in the morning, weren’t able to have a hot breakfast if they had an electric range, and were pretty heavily bundled up in their own homes if they depend on electricity for heat. That, after all, happened to me in early March of 2018,[1]Working from memory, I have previously said that it was January of 2018, but I recently looked at my 2018 diary, and found out that it was actually March 12-15, 2018. when the sparktricity failed for 4½ days following a heavy snow-and-ice storm. Since we were remodeling anyway, we added a propane range, water heater, and fireplace, so if the power fails again, we’ll still have heat, hot water, and cooked meals.

But remember: the Biden Administration wants people to get rid of natural gas utilities and depend exclusively on electricity, all to fight global warming climate change!

It’s March, and with the arrival of meteorological spring, temperatures aren’t bitterly cold in the Bluegrass State. But winter weather is still persisting in large parts of the United States, in the inland west, the northern midwest, and New England. people in those regions, when the power fails, can face life-threatening conditions. More, it isn’t always spring when the power is down; it can happen at any time, including the depths of winter. What the climate activists want is for people to just plain die, because that would be the result of a multi-day power outage in upstate New York or Minnesota or Denver if the left get their way. The truth is simple: they really don’t give a damn about the people!

References

References
↑1 Working from memory, I have previously said that it was January of 2018, but I recently looked at my 2018 diary, and found out that it was actually March 12-15, 2018.
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The government in the Mile High City wants to run your life for you

In 1971, Jonathan Edwards released a song called Sunshine, and part of the lyrics are:

Sunshine go away today
I don’t feel much like dancing
Some man’s gone, he’s tried to run my life
Don’t know what he’s asking

He tells me I’d better get in line
Can’t hear what he’s saying
When I grow up, I’m going to make it mine
But these aren’t dues I been paying

How much does it cost, I’ll buy it
The time is all we’ve lost, I’ll try it
But he can’t even run his own life
I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine, Sunshine

Well, there certainly are a whole lot of people who want to run other people’s lives! From The Denver Gazette:

Denver imposes natural gas ban on heating, cooling equipment in commercial buildings, multi-family housing

Scott Weiser | Monday, February 27, 2023

New building codes in Denver will ban natural gas furnaces and water heaters in new commercial and multifamily construction starting in 2024 in a move that officials said demonstrates the city’s commitment to reaching “zero” emissions in two decades but which critics warned would be painful and costly to building owners and tenants.

And by 2027, natural gas will not be permitted for any heating or cooling equipment in new commercial buildings, the city’s building officials said in a news release.

These restrictions do not apply to gas stoves.

Sheer bovine feces: if natural gas will not be permitted for the primary application for natural gas, heating, it makes no economic sense to apply for and install gas lines for the much lower use in gas ranges. Continue reading →

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Some of the environmentalists seem to want us to return to nineteenth century living

The two articles were not that far apart on the main page of The Wall Street Journal’s website. The first was rather innocuous:

Ford Invests $3.5 Billion in Michigan Battery Plant With Chinese Partner’s Technology

The facility will help the auto maker reach a goal of producing 2 million electric vehicles annually later this decade

By Ryan Felton and Nora Eckert | Monday, February 13, 2023 | 1:47 PM EST

Ford Motor Co. is investing $3.5 billion to build a battery plant in Michigan with help from China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.  Ltd., a win for the auto maker’s home state, which has seen many recent automotive projects head elsewhere.

Also see: William Teach: White House Climate Cult Czar Met With Private Ecoloons Group On Banning Gas Stoves

The facility, which will be built in Marshall, Mich., about 100 miles west of Detroit, is expected to create about 2,500 jobs, Ford said Monday. The auto maker said a wholly-owned subsidiary would manufacture the battery cells using technology and expertise provided by CATL, the world’s largest maker of batteries for electric vehicles.

Ford is seeking to boost its domestic EV-making supply chain to help it produce 2 million electric vehicles a year globally by the end of 2026. The company has secured about 70% of the battery capacity needed to reach its 2026 goal, it has said.

Auto makers are working to secure key minerals and build battery factories as they rush to produce more electric vehicles. Financial incentives for North American production of battery cells and materials included in the federal Inflation Reduction Act passed last year has accelerated those efforts, executives and analysts say.

There’s a lot more at the original, mostly business-related to battery production. But to the right and just a hair further down was this gem:

The Climate Crusaders Are Coming for Electric Cars Too

A new report makes clear the ultimate goal: tiny, uncomfortable apartments and bicycles for all.

By Allysia Finley | Sunday, February 12, 2023 | 3:15 PM EST

Replacing all gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles won’t be enough to prevent the world from overheating. So people will have to give up their cars. That’s the alarming conclusion of a new report from the University of California, Davis and “a network of academics and policy experts” called the Climate and Community Project.

The report offers an honest look at the vast personal, environmental and economic sacrifices needed to meet the left’s net-zero climate goals. Progressives’ dirty little secret is that everyone will have to make do with much less—fewer cars, smaller houses and yards, and a significantly lower standard of living.

Of course, that’s just the introduction, and fairly alarmist, but Allysia Finley, the article author, was a Californian, educated at Stanford, and a writer for the Stanford Review and later the Orange County Register. She has seen, first hand, the idiocy of the left coast and how, too often, the silliness that starts in the Pyrite State metastasizes to other parts of the country.

Further down she notes:

The report concludes that the auto sector’s “current dominant strategy,” which involves replacing gasoline-powered vehicles with EVs without decreasing car ownership and use, “is likely incompatible” with climate activists’ goal to keep the planet from warming by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial times. Instead, the report recommends government policies that promote walking, cycling and mass transit.

I’ve never lived in New York, and can only imagine what having to lug home your groceries on the subway would be like. But a short time in an apartment on a very narrow street on San Marco Island, in Venice, where there are no cars allowed, drove home to me the joys of having to shop for groceries in a small store, and then carry them all back to the third floor apartment. As I approach my seventieth year, though I’m still in pretty good shape, I have to wonder for how much longer I could do that.

It does, though, explain the small refrigerator and tiny kitchen; it’s not like you’d lug a week’s worth of groceries home!

Governments, the report says, could reduce “financial subsidies for private vehicles,” such as on-street and free parking. They could also impose charges on pickup trucks and SUVs (including electric ones) and build more bike lanes. Urbanites who suspect the expansion of bike lanes in their cities is intended to force people to stop driving aren’t wrong.

But what about suburbanites who need cars to get around? Reducing “car dependency” will require “densifying low-density suburbs while allowing more people to live in existing high-density urban spaces,” the report says. Translation: Force more people to live in shoe-box apartments in cities by making suburbs denser and less appealing.

Perhaps, to New Yorkers, that doesn’t sound like anything too much different from their lives today, but most people don’t live in Manhattan. And even in New York City, people in Queens and — horrors! — Staten Island aren’t living in the fifth-floor walkups that so many people associate with NYC.

All this may sound crazy, but it isn’t a fringe view on the left. A Natural Resources Defense Council report last year on lithium mining also concluded that the government needs “to reduce long-term dependency on single-passenger vehicles.” The Inflation Reduction Act included billions of dollars to promote bicycling and so-called livable neighborhoods.

Me? I live on a farm, and the nearest grocery store — and not that great a one — is six miles away, and a decent one is about 25 miles from our humble abode. Of course, I depend on my F-150 for work on the farm, but urban writers really don’t understand anything about that.

The looming shortage of minerals will cause prices for EVs—the only cars Americans will be allowed to buy if Mr. Newsom and his green friends have their way—to rise inexorably. Soon Americans may not be able to afford to buy a car even with a government subsidy. Then they will have no choice but to use mass transit or dust off their old 10-speed bike.

Note, too, that there won’t be nearly enough minerals to make the massive batteries necessary to back up an electric grid powered by unreliable wind and solar. So Americans will have to consume less energy—for instance, by setting their thermostats to 80 in summer and 65 in winter—and pay more for it.

Progressives’ ultimate goal is to reduce consumption—and living standards—because they believe humans are a menace to the Earth.

I would like to think that even the most dedicated of environmentalists would realize that what they want is simply not compatible with modern, American life, but I worry that the people who won’t be seriously affected, the New Yorkers who live in multi-million-dollar apartments in Central Park West, or luxury apartments in Center City Philadelphia within walking distance of their law offices, those who’ll be able to afford a luxury electric vehicle even if the mass of the plebeians will not, will somehow buffalo the mass of the public into thinking that this is the only way.

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As the activists try to force everyone into electric heat, have they considered what this will do to electricity bills?

We have wasted used a lot of bandwidth recently on the subject of the Biden Administration, some Democrat-governed states, and the global warming climate change activists wanting to force everyone away from natural gas and into electric utilities.

The southeast is the only region in the country in which electricity is the primary fuel for heating homes, due to the more rural nature of the area making natural gas service more limited, and our generally milder winters. And those people depending upon electricity to heat their homes are seeing some real sticker shock.

Seniors among customers struggling with rising energy bills

by Christiana Ford | Friday, January 20, 2023 | 8:45 PM EST | Updated: 8:53 PM EST

FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — State regulators are investigating how to ease volatile fuel costs passed onto consumers that are leading to higher-than-normal electric bills for customers in Kentucky.

People living in Eastern Kentucky have been struggling with high power bills in recent months.

There’s more before the fold, including the embedded video from WLEX-TV. Continue reading →

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Amanda Marcotte gaslighting on stoves

As we have previously noted, wealthy New Englanders renovating their homes on This Old House sure do love their gas heating and hot water systems, despite the climate activists and opinion columnists being given OpEd space in our major newspapers calling for bans on not just gas stoves, but gas appliances in general.

But it isn’t just the wealthy. For Season 42, the Dorchester Triple Decker in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the show worked with the owner of a working-class triple decker house which suffered damage from a fire. Unlike the very well-off homeowners we normally see on the show, this one had serious budget constraints, as the homeowner was not wealthy by any means, and the insurance settlement for the fire wasn’t huge.

And in the season 42, episode 23 show, the installation of the gas-fired heating and hot water systems — three of them, one for each apartment — was shown. The final episode, episode 26, showed that all three kitchens, one of which was to be rented not to family but a regular tenant, had gas ranges. We have previously noted that it “seems that almost everybody prefers a gas range,” even though the climate activists don’t want people to have that choice.

Naturally, with the recent stink about the Consumer Product Safety Commission reviewing gas ranges with at least a possibility of banning them, but with that report, both the commission and the White House hurriedly denied that such was anywhere under serious consideration.

Enter the very lovely and self-proclaimed foodie Amanda Marcotte, who took a far different tack.

“Gas stoves!” freak-out is the least convincing fake Republican outrage ever

Suddenly the party that despises kale and Dijon mustard wants to pretend they’re precious about culinary techniques

by Amanda Marcotte | Thursday, January 19, 2023 | 6:00 AM EST

It’s perhaps telling that Amanda Marcotte’s Twitter biography photo was taken in a bar.

“If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands,” Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Tex., tweeted. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex. — essentially a chatbot that churns out culture war nonsense — falsely accused Democratic of being hypocrites for having gas stoves they never said they intended to ban. Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., tweeted out a stove-based Gadsen flag, declaring, “don’t mess with gas stoves!” So on and so forth. Very predictable and very, very dumb.

There have been many thoughtful responses to this faux hysteria, carefully detailing how massive a lie it is, how no one is banning gas stoves, and how Republicans gin up these pretend panics to avoid talking about real issues. “Everything becomes identity politics,” Alex Shephard writes for The New Republic. “The right has long since stopped trying to come up with solutions to problems like climate change.”

Here’s where Miss Marcotte fails: conservatives have recognized that many of the articles I linked above supporting the elimination of gas ranges also called for the elimination of all gas appliances, particularly gas furnaces, in favor of heat pumps. Continue reading →

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Al Gore’s unhinged rant at Davos The best thing George W Bush ever did was to keep Al Gore and John Kerry out of the White House

We previously noted how Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry told attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that they were a “select group of human beings” who got to talk about saving Mother Gaia from global warming climate change emergency, something about which Robert Stacy McCain wrote in more detail. Not unexpectedly, Mr Kerry was not the only former Democratic presidential nominee to go off anything that could have been considered a preplanned script. Mr Kerry’s remarks were certainly impolitic, as talking to other patricians about how they need to guide the plebeians’ actions is not something which is likely to endear the commoners to Mr Kerry’s, and the other Davos denizens’, ideas, but at least he didn’t go off on an unhinged rant.

Al Gore goes on ‘unhinged’ rant about ‘rain bombs,’ boiled oceans, other climate threats at Davos

Gore claimed climate change could ultimately end mankind’s ability for ‘self-governance’

by Gabriel Hays | Fox News | Wednesday, January 18, 2023 | 12:30 PM EST

Climate activist and former Vice President Al Gore recently went on an “unhinged” rant on the dangers of climate change at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Gore’s speech, which involved him yelling about climate change “boiling the oceans,” causing freak weather occurrences like “rain bombs” and ultimately affecting humanity’s ability for “self-governance,” made for quite the spectacle on the world stage and on social media.

The former U.S. leader and current WEF agenda contributor spoke on the Davos stage in front of the global community urging drastic action on protecting the environment and combating climate change.

One thing is certain: for all of his other faults, we owe the younger George Bush an incalculable debt of gratitude for keeping Messrs Gore and Kerry out of the White House!

You can watch Mr Gore’s rant on the video, below the fold: Continue reading →

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In which Lurch says the quiet part out loud! John Kerry let us know just how special he is!

Former Senator John F Kerry (D-MA), the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, then Secretary of State under President Barack Hussein Obama, and now President Joe Biden’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, knows just how special he is!

That “select group of human beings”? How were they selected? Mostly by how much money they have.

Also read: Robert Stacy McCain: Kerry at Davos: ‘A Select Group of Human Beings … Talk About Saving the Planet’

Mr Kerry is wealthy too, having made his fortune the old fashioned way: he married it! Before he married Theresa Heinz, the widow of Senator John Heinz (R-PA), and heir to the Heinz food empire, Mr Kerry “had little more than his annual Senate salary of $133,600 and a trust fund valued at $50,000 to $100,000. When his mother died in 2002, he inherited trusts with $300,000 to $1.5 million in assets,” nothing to sneeze at, but nowhere near his current net worth of $250 million.

So, the hoitiest and the toitiest get to fly, many on private jets, gather together in a posh Swiss ski resort, where they can vacation with their wives and mistresses, and tell those of us who are not so hoity and toity how we must live. I have frequently referred to the Patricians and the plebeians, and the distinguished Mr Kerry decided to give the rest of us an illustration of just what those words mean.

We plebeians, of course, don’t usually have anywhere near Mr Kerry’s $250 million, and surveys have revealed that 49% of Americans would have a difficult time with an unexpected $400 expense, but Mr Kerry, his “select group of human beings,” and the well-off all seem to think that they can simply impose, by government fiat, a whole bunch of additional expenses on us to fight global warming climate change.

Well, not just no, but Hell no!

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No, they’re not going after just your gas stove; the #ClimateChange activists want to get rid of all of your gas appliances.

We were told that no, the government isn’t coming for your gas stove. We were told that it was just gaslighting — pardon the very much intended pun — of conservatives. But I sure am seeing a lot of advocacy articles in my media sources from people who want to do just that, ban gas stoves.

Gas stoves should be banned in Philadelphia

After the Port Richmond explosion, the city must transition away from gas and toward electricity.

by Zakaria Hsain and Erin K. Reagan | Tuesday, January 17, 2023 | 5:00 AM EST

Erin K Reagan, from her LinkedIn biography page.[1]Zakaria Hsain is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Erin K. Reagan is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania.

Erin Reagan? Not the Erin Reagan played by Bridget Moynahan on Blue Bloods? 🙂 No? Well, it is difficult to disagree with a pretty redhead, but, alas! I must.

Every day, Philadelphians are exposed to silent health hazards from gas stoves, boilers, and heaters. Gas appliances release dangerously high levels of pollutants, even when turned off. Many of these pollutants are toxic, carcinogenic, or associated with a higher risk of asthma and other respiratory diseases, particularly in children.

Ahhh, there you have it! Dr Hsain and Miss Reagan aren’t just after your gas stove, but all of your natural gas appliances, including boilers and heaters.

Of course, Dr Hsain and Miss Reagan know, or should know, that modern gas appliances do not have the pilot lights to which they referred when they stated that gas appliances are releasing pollutants even when turned off. Rather, they have electric sparks which ignite the gas when the appliances are activated. Yes, older gas appliances do have those things, but as remodels and rebuilds gradually replace the older appliances, the pilot light appliances are gradually being reduced.

The evidence is overwhelming, and it clearly shows that using gas in residential buildings is dangerous to the lives, health, and long-term welfare of Philadelphians. Just as the new year began, Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood was rocked by an explosion that destroyed three houses and left many injured and traumatized. Some pipeline safety experts say that the cause may have been a gas leak, though an ongoing Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) investigation found no flaws in its distribution lines.

When it was reported that no gas line leaks were discovered, my mind went instantly to one thought: meth lab! Of course, I have no information at all confirming such, but if there were no gas line leaks, then a gas explosion had to be cause by something other than the problems the authors attribute to the gas infrastructure in parts of the 769-word OpEd that I have not quoted.

City leaders and PGW may promise to upgrade or better maintain an aging, nearly 6,000-mile-long gas distribution network to mitigate the risk of explosions, but this does little to address the other health and climate risks. Additionally, maintaining this network may expose PGW to financial distress and stranded asset risk if the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which Pennsylvania recently joined, should impose carbon pricing on gas utilities.

And not only maintaining but improving and increasing the electrical production and distribution network will not? How many older homes in the City of Brotherly Love have only 100-amphere electric service? To run the “heat pumps, electric resistance and induction stoves, and electric space heaters” the authors said should replace gas appliances in a paragraph further down requires modern, 200-amp service. Do you have any idea what it costs to have a qualified, licensed electrician — particularly in a union-dominated city like Philly — upgrade electrical service?

More, heat pump HVAC systems use forced air duct work, but if you live in a Philly row home in which your natural gas or heating oil boiler pumped hot water or steam into cast iron radiators, you’ll need all-new ductwork installed as well. Did the authors consider that?

The propane fireplace that is our secondary heat source. It sure is nice on really cold days.

The heat pump that is the primary heating unit in our home is powered by two 220-volt, 50-amp circuits, one for the condenser, and one for the HVAC unit. The HVAC unit has an emergency heat setting, in which electric heating elements are activated when it’s too cold outside for the condenser to draw much heat from the outside air. Then add another 220-volt, 40- or 50-amp circuit for the electric or induction ranges Dr Hsain and Miss Reagan want you to use, plus a 220-volt, 30- or 40-amp circuit for an electric clothes dryer, and you’re talking about some real electric demand.

We have the supplemental, and occasionally backup, heat source of a gas — propane, actually, since there is no natural gas available out in our rural area — fireplace. When the electricity fails — and, delivered via overhead wires, electricity is our most vulnerable-to-the-weather utility — our propane fireplace, range (not the oven) and water heater still work. As we have previously noted, we’ve been without electricity for 4½ days due to winter storms.

The authors, further down, state that the city:

should introduce a retailer rebate program to incentivize the installation of electric appliances, modify its building code to mandate electrification of new residential buildings, and set minimum energy-efficiency standards that would encourage the adoption of efficient electric appliances in existing buildings and improve insulation and construction practices. In all this, the city should prioritize the electrification of public housing units and provide direct financial assistance to low-income homeowners.

While some fear that electrification would be cost-prohibitive, costs to property owners can be kept modest if no new buildings are connected to gas, gas appliances are replaced as their lifetimes end, and the city commits to providing financial and technical assistance to households. To further defray the costs of electrification, the city can apply for federal funding through the $550 million Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, as well as encourage eligible homeowners to benefit from up to $14,000 in federal incentives provided through the Inflation Reduction Act.

The last time I heard, Philadelphians also pay federal taxes, so it isn’t as though “federal incentives” don’t somehow cost city residents money.

Philadelphia’s leaders must get serious about the dangers of gas. Enacting policies that advance building electrification, while transitioning PGW to an alternative business model, is the only way to effectively safeguard the health and well-being of Philadelphians, now and in the future.

Dr Hsain and Miss Reagan write as though there are no dangers in electricity, but as someone who has done electrical work, I can assure you that there are. Electrical circuits improperly installed can lead to fires, and with the costs of getting licensed, professional electricians to install upgraded service and the additional wiring required to operate the new electrical appliances the authors want you to have, it’s not too difficult to imagine some homeowners or their jackleg brothers-in-law doing that work instead. Electric space heaters, which the authors mentioned as things people could use in their sixth paragraph, have caused, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 1,100 house fires across the country every year, roughly 32% of all home heating-caused house fires. Yet, with the heat pumps the authors advocate being relatively poor performers in extremely hot, on the air conditioning side, or extremely cold outside weather, people will be using those electric space heaters.

We have reported how well-to-do New Englanders, people living in very Democratic states, still love to have modern gas heating, ranges and water heaters installed during expensive remodels, because gas heating simply works best in the cold-weather states. Electricity is the primary heating ‘fuel’ only in the southeastern United States, with our milder winters in which heat pumps can usually keep up.[2]In the more rural southeast, fewer homes have natural gas service available, and it is much easier to run electric lines to homes separated from others by some distance. We have propane on our farm. Even the brutally cold days, of which we do get a few, don’t normally last too many days in a row.

The northeast? Heating systems are most frequently fueled by natural gas or heating oil, because those systems simply provide more heat than electric heat pumps. People use what is available to them, and what actually works well. Dr Hsain and Miss Reagan either don’t understand that, or if they do, simply don’t care. The Patricians have never really cared about the burdens they impose on the plebeians.

References

References
↑1 Zakaria Hsain is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Erin K. Reagan is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania.
↑2 In the more rural southeast, fewer homes have natural gas service available, and it is much easier to run electric lines to homes separated from others by some distance. We have propane on our farm.