by Erin Mundahl October 18, 2019
Consumers are getting caught in the crossfire of environmental activists’ war against natural gas and the new battlefield is in the kitchen.
Environmentalists began collaborating with state government officials from across the United States at a closed-door gathering in New York this summer to lay out the plans for policies that would prevent consumers from using natural gas to cook their food or heat their homes.
The conference included representatives from the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Energy Foundation, and the World Research Institute among others, according to open records recently obtained by free market group Energy Policy Advocates and reviewed by the Washington Times.
It was hosted by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) at their Pocantico Center in Tarrytown, N.Y. where they paid for all logistical costs and emails show they also offered to cover the airfare of state government officials who needed financial assistance.
“If your state cannot cover travel, we can help you cover your travel costs as well,” an email read.
On July 18, the group met for a panel discussion called “Natural Gas Lock In” which set its sights on natural gas home appliances like stoves, washers, and dryers.
“We are well past the point of using natural gas as a transition fuel, and new policies and programs should explicitly avoid further ‘lock-in’ investments like natural gas fueled municipal buses or energy efficiency funding for natural gas equipment,” read one email.
It’s a policy proposal that would likely have a significant adverse impact on Colorado, New Mexico, and other energy-producing states in the West.
Additional emails showed the group included state government officials from New Mexico and 11 other “trifecta” states – in which the Democratic Party controls both the governorship and both legislative chambers – who discussed going beyond bans on natural gas appliances and pursue a full elimination of fossil fuels.
New Mexico is heavily dependent on the oil and gas industry for its economy and to fund public services. Because of the thriving Permian Basin, the state saw a $900 million surplus last year and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has spoken repeatedly about being able to offer free tuition to state universities because of this revenue.
“We are asking lead energy policy advisors to attend from a dozen states with supportive, and in many cases, new governors and legislatures interested in accelerating the transition to a clean, low-carbon economy,” read an invite in one of the emails. You are invited because you are the, or one of the, lead policy advisors to your governor on energy and climate policy,” and agenda stated.
The meeting was a sign that climate activists, including the Basalt, Colo.-based Rocky Mountain Institute and Colorado State University’s Center for the new Energy Economy—which is headed by former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter—are working to spread natural gas bans around the country and that activists are continuing to work on the strategy that was originally envisioned at a gathering in La Jolla, Calif. in 2012 to use legal and regulatory actions to curtail the use of fossil fuels.
While activists are fighting to make natural gas appliances illegal, consumers continue to seek them out. Natural gas stoves, furnaces, and other appliances remain consumer favorites. According to the American Gas Association, in 2017, natural gas had 49 percent market share for both cooktop ranges and water heaters.
In part, this is because chefs and cooks at all skill levels prefer natural gas burners to electric stoves. Gas allows for quicker heat that can be more precisely controlled. In fact, one study of homebuyers in the Pacific Northwest found that 87 percent ranked natural gas service as important to them, largely because of price and cooking. They were also willing to pay a premium for natural gas over an all-electric home.
That presents a challenge for climate activists.
Read the rest of the article here.
HT/ L.E.J.
So here it comes. They’re not hiding or shading it. For a decade Californians have been scratching their heads over a ridiculous Jerry Brownesque 100 billion dollar High Speed Rail between LA and SF. Why, would you take that when a plane can get you there in 1/3 the time. Jerry knew the time was approaching when the single party legislators would declare the sale, use, transport or possession of gasoline, kerosene or diesel fuel to be illegal within the State of California. Guess we can add NG to that now.
I guess wood stoves are ok.
Jean, you guess wrong, wood stoves are already scheduled to be banned here in the UK. California will also ban them based on some fictitious eco reason. The objective is to stop normal people have freedom to chose their energy options.
The UK’s declared reason to ban wood burners currently scheduled for cities, but will be rolled out across the whole country is air pollution particulate.
That’s not going to work well for those who have Aga’s installed.
Depending on where you live, wood burning appliances may not be building code permissible. So a licensed contractor would forbidden to install one in those places.
I think there was an article way back on WUWT stating that in some states or couties in Canada they are now prohibiting the use and ownership of firewood stoves hand firewood heaters.
Jean Parisot October 25, 2019 at 8:00 am
I guess wood stoves are ok.
They’ve already started to ban them:
Bay Area first: Wood-burning heating devices to be banned in new homes
They are dictatorial to use the force of government when the market won’t do. And especially people’s choice with their own money.
It’s almost as if we had a foreign invader taking over our country, without a shot ever being fired.
Neo-marxism. Not all that particularly clever (pretty obvious to some), but if you first destroy the educational system & replace it w/indoctrination over several generations….
I notice the activists aren’t targeting home heating by natural gas, because, as a commenter on this site said earlier this year:
“Alan Tomalty February 19, 2018 at 1:46 pm
“How many people heat their homes with electricity even though electricity heating is near 100 % efficient? Not many of the 25% that live in places with a winter. That is because electricity has always been too expensive compared to fossil fuels. If you make electricity from fossil fuels you are paying for the conversion costs You might as well burn the fossil fuels to begin with.”
In late October 2011 New England got whacked by a cold front connected Nor’easter that dumped up 12” of wet snow across Connecticut, Massachusetts, R.I.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Halloween_nor%27easter
The trees still had leaves so power lines came down everywhere. My area was without power for 3 days with below-freezing nights. Some areas had no power for almost 2 weeks. The gas fired furnaces of course need electricity to turn the blowers and power electric igniters, so no heat from them.
Thankfully we were able to use the gas stove top burners to keep some warmth in the house to keep things from freezing those nights.
Oh for the good old days, when the common knowledge was that burning oil and coal produces all sorts of pollutants, while burning gas just produces “harmless” water vapor and CO2. Still quite true.
This is another in a growing list of very depressing posts here at WattsUpWithThat.
Agree that there are alot of depressing posts, but that’s reflecting reality, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to ignore reality. That is part of the reason we are at this point (for ex. in the US, the entire educational system was usurped from the inside by the cultural marxists w/hardly any resistance). Exposing it & fighting it (however you can manage) are the only intelligent responses.
People in the California Preventive Power Shutdown can tell the difference between cooking with electricity or gas. In the former the food is raw, in the latter cooked.
Why the Greens doesn’t start to graze on herbages and show as, what veganism is ?
Do rich foundations fund environmental NGOs
So that they then lobby for what these rich foundations and families want?
Well, this is just stupid. Those clowns really do come up with stupider and stupider stuff. No use of NatGas at all, huh?
Are these bozos going to pay for rewiring my house’s electrical system so that an electric water heater, furnace and stove can be installed and NOT overload the wiring and set the whole place on fire?
I don’t take kindly to being told I can’t use efficient appliances because someone thinks CO2, which makes plants grow and thrive, is somehow an undefined threat. I also don’t “cotton” to using an unreliable source to heat my home in the winter.
Both my gas and electric bills dropped this fall, which is nice. I plan for that kind of thing. When the power went out in a slop storm back in November, I kept track of the rate at which the indoor temperature dropped between 1AM when it started (I was backing up stuff on my hard drive) and 6:30PM when the power came back on. I felt quite lucky to have chosen a house that is that well insulated, so that the indoor temp dropped only 12 degrees in that 18-hour period. I shudder to think what might happen in a really bad outage in mid-winter.
The people who want these things are absolutely nuts. I believe now that they really do think electricity comes from a wall socket, not from a generating station miles away. I hope quite sincerely that this asinine stuff comes to a screeching halt when the worst winter ever to hit where they all live shuts off everything, including blocking exit doors. I’m very cynical about it, but they are nuts and they need to be subjected to what they want to inflict on others, in a very, very harsh way.
Rant over.
And the darkness and death come. It was obvious decades ago, but Americans DID NOT CARE AND COULD NOT BE BOTHERED. So, your kids will live in the dark and violent times. I find it amazing a society could care so little about its offspring, and especially in such a short time. Maybe lazy and stupid are the future—it seems that way. Don’t think, don’t act, hide in the closet or appease the violent and terrible enemy until it devours you.
How can they offer to pay expenses for state employees?
You may rub two sticks together but don’t you dare cut down any trees, especially near the power lines.
The climate nazis Rockefeller Foundation et al have telegraphed their intentions for decades.
First, they’ll take away your best heat, your efficient wheels, your industry and jobs.
Second, they’ll take away power plants, making you poorer, dysfunctional, dependent.
Third, you’ll be forced into a FEMA-run ‘sustainable’ city pod, depopulating the rural USA.
Endgame: the free and industrious USA will no longer exist thanks to the Rockefellers et al.
They’ll finally attain their great work, a 4th Reich – global feudalism run by tyranny forever.
It’s people like this who make the 2nd Amendment necessary. I pity you folks in England, Australia, etc. who don’t have the Bill of Rights protections we have in the US. These clowns can meet as much as they want but they will not be able to get control of an armed population who does not want to follow their BS. Just ask George V.
It was George III
All about control, nothing else. See this article on a small Leftist Mecca:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170329-the-extraordinary-electricity-of-the-scottish-island-of-eigg
From the article:
“To not overload the system and ensure everyone has fair access to power, residents voted unanimously to approve the requirement that each house gets a maximum of 5 kW to use at one time – the equivalent of running an electric kettle and washing machine simultaneously. Businesses get 10 kW. To keep track, meters tell them how much they are using at any one time; exceed the cap, and your electricity goes out. To deter this from happening, the user is required to call the Eigg Electric team to turn it back on at a £20 penalty fee.”
Make everything electric, make everyone dependent on a centralized supply, then control it and jack the price. Where is Standard Oil when you need it? But it’s ok, cus 97% of those that believe they know better than you have agreed how much you ‘need’.
Only viable on a small island using other people’s money.
“Eigg will probably never be able to do away entirely with diesel backup and c) that the project owes its existence to the fact that 94% of the capital cost was financed by grants. It is economically unviable on a stand-alone basis.”
http://euanmearns.com/the-eigg-renewables-project-revisited/
We are heading down the road the Soviet Union has already traversed. In essence, a planned economy where the smartest, most moral, progressive individuals control the economy. We will have 1 year, 5 year, and 10 economic plans that guarantee everyone with equal outcomes. Everyone will be assigned to tasks that best fits their aptitudes. And, who will control all this? Why, the intelligent elite who have attended the best colleges and know best how we should all live to maximize our time on God’s green earth. Their intentions will be the most purest and their ethics and decisions will be beyond reproach. I guarantee it!
This is beginning to happen already in California. First Bezerkely and just recently San Luis Obispo have banned any new gas hook ups. It’s just a matter of time before this starts sweeping the liberal city councils here in SoCal and beyond. Electrifying cooking, heating, driving etc….will completely overload the grid. This is going to get very ugly.
“This is going to get very ugly.”
Oh, I do hope so. I hope it gets so ugly that mirrors crack when the subject is brought up.
I guess I just do not understand their rejection of the real world. Never have, never will.
Let’s pour some gas on that fire and accelerate the change in Cali.
As they shut down the electrical grid to avoid fires, and there is no alternative civilized fuel source, let’s see how primitive Cali can go.
The natgas police should start by visiting all the owners of Viking, Subzero, Wolf, etc. gas-powered ranges and stoves from the elite homes and restaurants in the Bay Area and LA, arrest them, jail them, and destroy those evil gas-powered abominations.
And let’s cut the HVDC intertie from The Dalles in Oregon, after we breach all the dams on the Columbia.
It’s much too dangerous; the risk of wildfires is much too high, can’t risk that.
When THEY wish to deny us energy… we should deny THEM energy first, so they can get a taste of what it is like.
All environmentalists should be forced to live by what they want for the rest of us. They block pipelines? Identify them. Name them. Stop them buying petroleum products and driving. Force them to heat with wood. They demonize carbon dioxide? Force them off the grid.
They would soon be whistling a different tune, or they would be dead. Same thing in the end.
The island in Scotland if fortunate to have some hydro power, which generally will have continuous output.
I wonder if the genius locals have had some geologists check for gas shale deposits?
They will have to pry my gas stove from my cold dead hands!
Democrats, not “activists”, are coming for your fire…in all its forms. Republicans have to respond to this loudly as a point for 2020.
When the Alarmists start interfering in people’s kitchens, they have vastly overplayed their hand and are exposed to common sense analysis and the following outrage. This is happening too with XR where commuters are compelled to take the law into their own hands, because of police inaction, and pull the idiots of the roofs of trains.