That time I argued with a climate activist about natural gas phaseouts in my own kitchen

Last spring I had this neighbor over for coffee, and she's big into the local climate group. She kept saying we need to ban natural gas tomorrow, no exceptions. I pointed to my gas stove and asked what she'd do about my 75-year-old building where the landlord won't upgrade the electrical panel. She just said 'find a new place then' which felt totally disconnected from real life. Has anyone else had a conversation where the big picture plan just ignores how people actually live?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordan_hill9d ago

My buddy's gonna have to move out of his rent controlled apartment in Astoria next year because the building is doing a "gas free" conversion and he can't afford a market rate place anywhere nearby. The city gave the landlord some green grant money and now everyone's old stoves are getting ripped out with no plan for people who can't handle the electric bill spike. It's like these climate people think everyone can just drop a thousand bucks on induction cooktops and solar panels overnight.

lucasw849d ago

Nah, electric stoves are way cheaper to run than people think.

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williamw759d ago

Agree with you @jordan_hill, same thing happened to a buddy in my building - they got grant money to swap out gas stoves and now people are looking at higher electric bills they never budgeted for. It's like the folks pushing this stuff never had to choose between eating and paying a utility bill.