Put a Label on Gas!

The Gas Leaks website (gasleaks.org) suggests that we put labels on natural gas: “Warning, Natural Gas,” “Danger, Toxic Chemicals,” and “Caution Health Risks.”

The site explains that natural gas has a nasty habit of exploding, causing hundreds of deaths each year, but it also causes “slow motion” harms to the health of people who live near well sites and in people’s homes that use natural gas.

As you may know, natural gas (methane) is also a very powerful greenhouse gas that is contributing to global warming.  Over a 20 year period, methane in the atmosphere is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

Big Oil/Gas have spent millions convincing the public that gas is okay – that it is a clean fuel or that it is a bridge fuel until we can fully deploy renewable energy.  Turns out that Big Oil/Gas hired the same messaging firms Big Tobacco used to mislead the public on the hazards of smoking. 

What is the solution – the alternative to natural gas?  Ideally it would be electrification of everything with the electricity supplied by renewables.  But at least we can electrify now, and hope that the renewables deployment eventually supplies all or most of our electric power. By doing this, we help create the market for wind, solar, and geothermal to supply electricity.

The Gas Leaks website lists a number of tax credit and rebate programs that support electrification, including for stoves, cars, clothes dryers, heat pumps, geothermal pumps, solar panels and other items.

You can visit the Gas Leaks website at: gasleaks.org