"New York is the latest Democratic city aiming to fight climate change by ushering out stoves and furnaces that run on gas in favor of electric alternatives. But Republican states and the gas industry are fighting back."
"In a nation that is already deeply split along partisan lines over the pandemic response, racial equity and abortion, add this: gas stoves and furnaces.
This week, New York City moved to ban gas hookups in new buildings, joining cities in blue states like California, Massachusetts and Washington that want to shift homes away from burning natural gas because it releases carbon dioxide, which causes global warming.
Instead, developers in New York City will have to install electric heat pumps and electric kitchen ranges in newly constructed buildings.
But the growing push to electrify homes has triggered a political backlash: At least 20 mostly red states including Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Ohio and Texas have passed laws that forbid their cities from restricting gas use. Most of these bills have passed in the last year, backed by the natural gas industry and local gas utilities, which see electrification as a looming threat to their bottom line."
Brad Plumer and Hiroko Tabuchi report for the New York Times December 16, 2021.
