In Blue America, electricity is in and natural gas is out. The movement to ban natural gas service in new construction started in Berkeley, California in 2019 and has spread to other localities including New York City. The rationale is that burning natural gas has CO2 emissions. The unstated implication is that electricity does not.

But the largest single source of electricity in the Unites States is natural gas combustion. In 2021, 38 percent of electricity came from generators powered by natural gas. So, currently the choice is not between electricity and natural gas, but between the use of natural gas directly in the home and use as a fuel at an electric generation facility. Banning natural gas use in the home only makes sense if increasing home electricity use burns less natural gas, and thus emits less CO2. …

As long as natural gas is used to generate electricity, bans on natural gas use in new residential construction result in reductions in CO2 emissions only if very high efficiency heat pumps are used and only if combined cycle rather than simple gas turbines are used for generation. All other uses of electricity actually increase emissions because of the heat losses in electricity generation. So why are localities in Blue America banning natural gas?

[Because they follow The Science, not actual science. — Ed]