american gas association

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.How Can You Be a Steward of Good Tech in 2023? | Gizmodo InterviewWhen the city of Berkeley, California passed the country’s first ban on the use of natural gas in new buildings in the summer of 2019, environmental advocates celebrated the move as an important precedent for other cities to follow. And follow they did: There are now at least 99 similar ordinances in place across the country, the vast majority of which require…

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.Last month, Eugene became the first city in Oregon to pass an ordinance requiring new residential buildings to be fossil fuel-free. But the policy may never go into effect — not if the natural gas industry gets its way.Ever since the electrification ordinance passed, a group funded by Oregon’s largest gas utility has been busy collecting petition signatures from Eugene residents in an attempt to…

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.Newly uncovered documents reveal that the gas industry understood that its stoves were polluting the air inside homes 50 years ago — and then moved to conceal that information. It stands in stark contrast to the industry’s denial of the health dangers posed by gas stoves today.In a draft report on natural gas and the environment in January 1972, the American Gas Association included a section on…

Photo: Mathieu Lewis-Rolland (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.Electric and gas utilities have used money collected from customers to lobby lawmakers, butter up regulators, and slow the shift to clean energy. Beyond being occasionally illegal, the practice has stuck consumers with higher bills and led to higher carbon dioxide emissions, industry watchdogs say.In one particularly egregious example, the FBI arrested Larry Householder, who was the…

Photo: Tim Boyle (Getty Images)The federal government may consider a ban on gas stoves thanks to mounting concerns about the health impacts of the appliances, Bloomberg reported Monday.In an interview with Bloomberg, Richard Trumka, Jr., a commissioner at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, saidthe agency would consider a range of options, including restricting manufacturing or importing gas stoves and/or putting emissions standards on the products, to better protect U.S. consumers.“This is a hidden hazard,”…

Columbia University in New York City.Photo: Mark Lennihan (AP)Journalists like me often seek out academics for comment and insight on stories related to the energy transition, since these professors have often done in-depth research into various fuel sources and their impacts. The hope is that these sources are relatively unbiased; their loyalty is to the data. But a study published Thursday in Nature Climate Change found that prominent energy policy centers at top-tier universities that are funded by the fossil fuel…