Gas stoves should be banned in Philadelphia

Every day, Philadelphians are exposed to silent health hazards from gas stoves, boilers, and heaters. Gas appliances release dangerously high levels of pollutants, even when turned off. Many of these pollutants are toxic, carcinogenic, or associated with a higher risk of asthma and other respiratory diseases, particularly in children.

Gas use also indirectly harms Philadelphians by releasing greenhouse gases that exacerbate the effects of climate change — including floods, like those of Hurricane Ida which caused $3.5 billion in damages in the state, and extreme heat, which killed five people in a single week last summer. Not only does gas produce carbon dioxide when burned, contributing about 17% of the city’s emissions, but it also leaks from appliances and distribution lines as methane, a greenhouse gas that is over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

The evidence is overwhelming, and it clearly shows that using gas in residential buildings is dangerous to the lives, health, and long-term welfare of Philadelphians. Just as the new year began, Philadelphia’s Port Richmond neighborhood was rocked by an explosion that destroyed three houses and left many injured and traumatized. Some pipeline safety experts say that the cause may have been a gas leak, though an ongoing Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) investigation found no flaws in its distribution lines.

It is, sadly, only the latest of many incidents linked to gas that have threatened the lives and well-being of Philadelphians. Since 1999, five gas explosions across the city have killed three people, injured at least 21, destroyed nine homes, and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents. The reoccurrence of these destructive gas incidents should be cause for great concern for city leaders and residents and should prompt efforts to move away from the use of gas in residential buildings.

City leaders and PGW may promise to upgrade or better maintain an aging, nearly 6,000-mile-long gas distribution network to mitigate the risk of explosions, but this does little to address the other health and climate risks. Additionally, maintaining this network may expose PGW to financial distress and stranded asset risk if the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which Pennsylvania recently joined, should impose carbon pricing on gas utilities.

The only approach that eliminates the hazards of gas and protects Philadelphians is the electrification of residential buildings by replacing gas boilers, stoves, and heaters with heat pumps, electric resistance and induction stoves, and electric space heaters. Our 2022 policy memo elaborates on the many options available to the city of Philadelphia to advance building electrification, even if state laws hampering these efforts were to be enacted.

The recent failure of one such law, thanks to Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto, should embolden Philadelphia to pursue electrification. The city should introduce a retailer rebate program to incentivize the installation of electric appliances, modify its building code to mandate electrification of new residential buildings, and set minimum energy-efficiency standards that would encourage the adoption of efficient electric appliances in existing buildings and improve insulation and construction practices. In all this, the city should prioritize the electrification of public housing units and provide direct financial assistance to low-income homeowners.

While some fear that electrification would be cost-prohibitive, costs to property owners can be kept modest if no new buildings are connected to gas, gas appliances are replaced as their lifetimes end, and the city commits to providing financial and technical assistance to households. To further defray the costs of electrification, the city can apply for federal funding through the $550 million Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, as well as encourage eligible homeowners to benefit from up to $14,000 in federal incentives provided through the Inflation Reduction Act.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia’s biggest barrier to climate action is PGW

Obviously, electrification will make the current business model of PGW obsolete. In 2021, the utility recognized this challenge and studied the options available to diversify its business away from gas. Despite this progress, there seems to be little urgency or political will within the Mayor’s Office, City Council, or the Philadelphia Gas Commission to push PGW to commit significant resources toward diversification.

With the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes generous tax credits for clean energy, PGW might find a viable business model in switching to the production and distribution of clean hydrogen or geothermal heat. To protect the livelihood of PGW’s 1,600 employees as electrification continues to gather steam, the city must transition PGW to a carbon-neutral business model.

Philadelphia’s leaders must get serious about the dangers of gas. Enacting policies that advance building electrification, while transitioning PGW to an alternative business model, is the only way to effectively safeguard the health and well-being of Philadelphians, now and in the future.

Zakaria Hsain is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Erin K. Reagan is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania.