Consider This from NPR - America's Energy Future: How Gas Companies Are Fighting To Block Climate Rules

Episode Date: February 24, 2021

Natural gas utilities face a bleak future in a world increasingly concerned about climate change. An NPR investigation shows how they work to block local climate action and protect their business. More from NPR's Jeff Brady and Dan Charles: As Cities Grapple With Climate Change, Gas Utilities Fight To Stay In Business. Additional reporting in this episode from NPR's Nathan Rott.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The winter storm that crippled Texas last week may have made you wonder, where does your electricity come from? How about the energy you use to cook or heat your home? You might not know or even care, but lots of powerful people do. You're going to start with the natural gas flame. Turn it on. This video is part of a marketing campaign by the American Gas Association, which basically paid social media influencers to cook with gas. Now, because the flames actually come up, you are able to heat and cook your tortilla. Mother Jones reported on the campaign last year, which was called

cooking with gas. You get that nice golden brown, that char color from that direct flame. You're hearing Amber Kelly, who won a kids cooking competition on the Food Network. I want to get a bite of everything. And has a cookbook for teens and young adults. These are so good. Now, that campaign was part of how the gas industry is responding to a growing movement toward more electric utilities and appliances, which are better for the environment. It's a movement the Biden administration is seeking to accelerate. And the gas industry, well, they're worried. At a conference in November,

an industry executive said Biden's energy plan would mean nothing less than eliminating natural gas. Our goal is to reframe the debate around natural gas and to really show the value proposition of natural gas and our energy infrastructure and how we're going to be key to a clean energy future. That was Sue Forrester, a vice president at the same organization behind that social influencer campaign. But most researchers who study the issue say natural gas is not key to a clean energy future. That in fact, switching away from gas to electricity is the most efficient way to eliminate carbon emissions

from most buildings by 2050. Here's Erin Mayfield at Princeton University. We cannot continue using natural gas for things like heating and cooking because it's not consistent with reaching a net zero goal. Consider this. One way or another, the way we get our energy in America, it's changing. And powerful forces are fighting about what that change looks like. From NPR, I'm Adi Cornish. It's Wednesday, February 24th.

This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. In recent mass shootings, people have been targeted for who they are or who they worship. But on June 28, 2018, people were targeted for the job they do, at a newspaper. Listen to the new series from NPR's Embedded about the survivors at the Capital Gazette. It's Consider This from NPR. We'll come back to the fight over the future of natural gas.

But first, this week, another fight of sorts was playing out in Washington, D.C. I almost feel like your nomination is this proxy fight about the future of fossil fuels. That was Maria Cantwell, senator from Washington state. And Cantwell was talking to Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Joe Biden's nominee for interior secretary. It was on her first day of her Senate confirmation hearing. Holland began her opening statement on Capitol Hill, as perhaps no other cabinet nominee ever has. I acknowledge that we are on the ancestral homelands of the Nacotchtank, Anacostan, and Piscataway people. As many of you know, my story is unique.

Holland is a member of New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo. If confirmed, she would be the first Native American to serve in the cabinet, and she would also play a key role in President Biden's ambitious climate agenda. The president's agenda demonstrates that America's public lands can and should be engines for clean energy production. President Biden also knows that restoring and conserving our lands through a civilian climate core has the potential to spur job creation. Now that translates into a lot of stuff Republicans don't like, though Holland did throw in this acknowledgement. There's no question that fossil

energy does and will continue to play a major role in America for years to come. And this gets at why Holland's nomination was described as a proxy fight. Her confirmation hearing was basically a preview of a battle Democrats and Republicans will be having even more over the next four years. Democrats, including the president, believe the government should play a role in remaking American energy to move it away from fossil fuels and help fight climate change. Republicans, especially from states that rely on fossil fuel production, not so much. Do you support a ban on fracking and no new pipelines?

Senator, President Biden does not support a ban on fracking is my understanding. Here's one exchange Holland had with Senator Steve Daines of Montana. But do you personally support a ban on fracking and no new pipelines? Senator, if I am confirmed as secretary, I would be serving at the pleasure of the president and it would be his agenda that I would move forward. The overarching goal of Joe Biden's agenda is to put the U.S. on a path towards carbon neutrality by 2050. The Interior Department would play a really big role in that effort because it has oversight over the country's public lands

and a lot of our energy comes from public lands. So does about a quarter of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions. I know how important oil and gas revenues are to critical services, but we must also recognize that the energy industry is innovating and our climate challenge must be addressed. Together we can work to position our nation and all of its people for success. Of course, energy executives have heard talk about innovating to fight climate change for a long time. If the goal is to reduce emissions, we're all in. If the goal is to put us out of business, not so much.

That's Karen Harbert, the president of the American Gas Association, or AGA. That's the main trade group for gas utilities that serves tens of millions of homes and businesses. And they're the group behind that marketing campaign from earlier, influencers cooking with gas. But that's not the only way the gas industry is trying to exert its influence. And here, you need a bit of backstory. For a couple of years now, there's been a push in cities and states with ambitious climate goals to adopt rules that would ban developers

from using fossil fuels in buildings. So no gas for heat, no gas for cooking, all electric, which is better for the environment. In response, the gas industry has been lobbying for state laws that make it illegal for local governments to impose bans on gas. So far, four states have passed laws like that, and 12 more mostly Republican-led states are considering them. This fight over whether cities and states should be allowed to restrict what types of energy people can use, well, it has big implications, and not just for what kind of stove you can put in your home, but for the future of the global climate. Here's NPR's Dan Charles with the rest of the story. Flagstaff, Arizona is a town with a lot of environmentalists.

The city's Director of Sustainability, Nicole Antonopoulos, says last year the city council passed a climate emergency declaration. Which set the Flagstaff community on a path toward reaching carbon neutrality by the year 2030. And Antonopoulos has been working on a plan for one of the city's biggest sources of heat-trapping gases, the fuel used to heat buildings, including her own home. I have a gas furnace and a gas stove. For years, the industry sold gas as a relatively clean fuel. But now, environmentalists like Alejandra Mejia Cunningham at the Natural Resources Defense Council are

pushing an alternative, electrification, because electric heating can be totally clean if that electricity comes from solar and wind and hydro. We have the technology. It's really one of the more cost-effective, least regrets strategies we have available. In California, dozens of communities are now forcing builders to go all electric. They're not allowing gas hookups for most new buildings. And about a year ago, Nicole Antonopoulos says Flagstaff was thinking of doing the same thing. That was one of our strategies. Could we say no new, no natural gas in new construction? At exactly the same time, though, the gas industry was preparing a counterattack. At a meeting of the American Gas Association's Executive Committee in December 2019, the group's CEO, Karen Harbert, called these moves by cities a challenge for the industry.

An environmental group, the Climate Investigation Center, obtained a document describing this meeting. And it describes a new industry initiative to fight those municipal ordinances. Half a dozen gas companies were involved, among them Southwest Gas, the biggest gas provider in Arizona. In February of 2020, a senior member of the Arizona legislature who'd received political contributions from Southwest Gas introduced a bill that made it illegal for cities to limit gas hookups. Republicans lined up to support it.

Here's Representative Mark Fincham from Tucson. We have been able to observe what happens in cities like Berkeley, California, that take these radical steps to tell people this is what you will use whether you like it or not. The bill sailed through the legislature and was signed within a month. After that, the gas industry expanded their campaign. Here's one of the top lobbyists for the American Gas Association, George Lowe, on a conference call with industry colleagues in November. We have run pro-gas choice legislation, Arizona, Tennessee, Louisiana. So those states now, you can't deny someone natural gas service at their home. We're looking at about 15 or 20 different states to run that in this year.

Bills that block cities from restricting or discouraging the use of natural gas have since been introduced in a dozen state legislatures, including Florida, Georgia, Utah, and Kansas. Jasmine Moore is the sustainability director for Lawrence, Kansas, which has set a goal of 100% renewable energy. It really seems like it's intended to slow down our progress. Moore and officials in other cities say it's not exactly clear what the proposed laws will allow cities to do. So they're getting creative, recruiting allies for electrification.

In Salt Lake City, that includes a construction company. This is our sixth all-electric apartment building that we've done. Tyler Holland with Wadman Corporation is showing off a six-story structure, framed but not yet finished. It's intended for affordable housing, so it had to be built affordably too. Holland says his company only did its first all-electric building because an environmentally-minded developer forced them to. They thought it would cost a lot extra. Turns out it's cheaper. You eliminate doing gas taps. You eliminate running all those gas lines through your building. Instead of a gas furnace in each unit releasing exhaust into the air,

there's an electric heat pump on the wall. Super efficient heating and cooling. When electricity comes from renewables, it'll be great for the climate. In the meantime, it makes the city's air cleaner. We just want everybody to do it. I mean, it's everybody's air that we're all breathing. Makes my mountain bike ride that much easier. His company is now sharing its blueprints and budgets with other builders. If the city government can't drive electrification, maybe those numbers will do the job. And PR's Dan Charles. That story is part of a larger reporting project on the natural gas industry by Dan and our NPR colleague, Jeff Brady.

A lot of what you heard earlier in the episode came from Jeff's work and also from NPR's Nathan Rott. He's been covering Deb Haaland's nomination for interior secretary. We've got links where you can find more of their reporting in our episode notes. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Adi Cornish.