{"id":42879,"date":"2021-02-17T11:15:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T11:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=499067"},"modified":"2021-02-17T11:15:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T11:15:02","slug":"how-the-fossil-fuel-industry-convinced-americans-to-love-gas-stoves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/17\/how-the-fossil-fuel-industry-convinced-americans-to-love-gas-stoves\/","title":{"rendered":"How the fossil fuel industry convinced Americans to love gas stoves"},"content":{"rendered":"
This <\/em>story<\/em><\/a> was originally published by Mother Jones<\/a> <\/em>and is reproduced here as part of the <\/em>Climate Desk<\/em><\/a> collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n In early 2020, Wilson Truong posted on the Nextdoor social media platform \u2014 where users can send messages to a group in their neighborhood \u2014 in a Culver City, California, community. Writing as if he were a resident of the Fox Hills neighborhood, Truong warned <\/a>the group members that their city leaders were considering stronger building codes that would discourage natural gas lines in newly built homes and businesses. In a message with the subject line \u201cCulver City banning gas stoves?\u201d Truong wrote: \u201cFirst time I heard about it I thought it was bogus, but I received a newsletter from the city about public hearings to discuss it\u2026Will it pass???!!! I used an electric stove but it never cooked as well as a gas stove so I ended up switching back.\u201d<\/p>\n Truong\u2019s post ignited a debate. One neighbor, Chris, defended electric induction stoves. \u201cEasy to clean,\u201d he wrote about the glass stovetop, which uses a magnetic field to heat pans. Another user, Laura, was nearly incoherent in her outrage. \u201cNo way,\u201d she wrote, \u201cI am staying with gas. I hope you can too.\u201d<\/p>\n What these commenters didn\u2019t know was that Truong wasn\u2019t their neighbor at all. He was writing in his role as account manager for the public relations firm Imprenta Communications Group. Imprenta\u2019s client was Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions, or C4BES, a front group <\/a>for SoCalGas, the nation\u2019s largest gas utility, working to fend off state initiatives to limit the future use of gas in buildings. C4BES had tasked Imprenta with exploring how social media platforms, including Nextdoor, could be used to foment community opposition to electrification. Though Imprenta assured me this Nextdoor post was an isolated incident, the C4BES website <\/a>displays Truong\u2019s comment next to two other anonymous Nextdoor comments as evidence of their advocacy work in action.<\/p>\n The Nextdoor incident is just one of many examples of the newest front in the gas industry\u2019s war to garner public support for their fuel. As more municipalities have moved to phase gas lines out of new buildings to cut down on methane emissions, gas utilities have gone on the defensive, launching anti-electrification campaigns across the country. To ward off a municipal vote in San Luis Obispo, California, during the pandemic, a union representing gas utility workers threatened to bus in \u201chundreds\u201d<\/a> of protesters with \u201cno social distancing in place.\u201d In Santa Barbara, California, residents have received<\/a> robotexts <\/a>warning a gas ban would dramatically increase their bills. The Pacific Northwest group Partnership for Energy Progress, funded in part by Washington state\u2019s largest natural gas utility, Puget Sound Energy, has spent at least $1 million <\/a>opposing heating electrification in Bellingham and Seattle, including $91,000 on bus ads showing a happy family cooking with gas next to the slogan: \u201cReliable. Affordable. Natural Gas. Here for You.\u201d In Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana, and Tennessee<\/a>, where electrification campaigns have not yet taken off, the industry has worked aggressively with state legislatures to pass laws \u2014 up to a dozen are in the works \u2014 that would prevent cities from passing cleaner building codes.<\/p>\n