FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Stuart Saulters, Vice President of Government Relations
Phone: (202) 544-1334
Email: ssaulters@apga.org
APGA Expresses Disappointment in Exclusion of Gas Appliances from ENERGY STAR Home Upgrade Program
Washington, D.C. (February 8, 2022) – The American Public Gas Association (APGA), representing more than 700 local, municipally-owned natural gas systems in 38 states, issued the following statement in response to the EPA’s launch of the ENERGY STAR Home Upgrade program:
“On February 1st, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the launch of the ENERGY STAR Home Upgrade program, a list of renovations that seek to increase household energy affordability. While APGA supports the program’s aim — to help Americans of all income levels reduce emissions through access to efficient appliances in their homes — APGA is disappointed that the EPA excluded all natural gas appliances from this list.
In doing so, the EPA has ignored the efficiency and tremendous cost savings that can come with gas appliances — characteristics that are crucial for the low-income families and seniors who currently rely on gas to heat their homes and cook their food. In fact, homes that use all-electric appliances pay nearly $900 more annually than those with a traditional mix of gas and electric appliances — and that’s before accounting for the retrofit costs associated with installing all new appliances.
What’s more, this decision risks reducing energy reliability, squandering the efficiency of the existing natural gas infrastructure and stifling innovation. While unplanned natural gas outages affect only 1 in 800 natural gas users per year, electric distribution systems average one outage per year per customer. Meanwhile, decades of emissions-reducing innovations have resulted in the direct use of natural gas in stoves, clothes dryers, water heaters and furnaces being nearly 2.5 times more efficient than electric appliances.
Today, utilities across the country are increasingly turning to renewable natural gas (RNG) to further improve efficiency by capturing emissions from landfills, agricultural waste and other sources of pollution and repurposing them into usable, carbon-negative energy. Innovation is also underway for gas appliances themselves, as new natural gas-fired heat pump technology will soon be widely available, providing a comparable efficiency profile to electric heat pump technology.
APGA supports the Biden Administration’s efforts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and all sources. We stand ready to work together with the Administration and others to leverage both the existing natural gas system and future innovations to reduce emissions while prioritizing energy reliability and affordability for all Americans.”