American Gas Association says 26 states have now passed fuel protection legislation to guard energy choice
The American Gas Association said the state of Nebraska’s state legislature became the 26th state to pass fuel choice legislation in a unanimous and bipartisan vote, securing the protection of energy choice for consumers in a majority of states across the country.
The AGA explained that consumer energy choice preserves access to safe, clean and affordable energy resources including natural gas that offer a sustainable pathway to the shared goal of reducing emissions while maintaining affordability, reliability and quality of life for Americans.
“Thanks to the bipartisan action of now 26 state governments, more than 157 million Americans and 58 million households have a protected choice when it comes to how to fuel their homes and businesses,” said AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert.
Natural gas usage
“The average home using natural gas for space heating, water heating, cooking and clothes drying has about 18 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions than those attributable to an all-electric home, and the average family using natural gas for those purposes saves an average of $1,132 per year,” explained Harbert.
“Over the past 10 years, American families have saved a total of $125 billion thanks to natural gas,” she stated.
“Those are numbers we can be proud of. They also highlight how harmful natural gas bans would be for American families,” Harbert stated.
The AGA represents more than 200 local energy companies that deliver natural gas throughout the US.
There are more than 77 million residential, commercial and industrial natural gas customers in the US, of which 95 percent, or around 73M customers, receive their gas from AGA members.
Fuel choice legislation preserves access to natural gas in homes and businesses in states that have enacted them across America.
Nebraska became the 26th state to pass such a law, joining Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
Bipartisan moves
“Every state to pass fuel choice legislation has done so in a bipartisan manner,” said the AGA.
“Since 1990, emissions from the natural gas distribution system have declined by 70 percent, even as demand for and usage of natural gas has increased with natural gas served to 23.4 million more consumers and the number of miles of distribution pipeline increasing by 59 percent,” the AGA noted.
US Natural gas is currently 3.3 times more affordable than electricity and expected to remain substantially more cost-efficient through at least to 2050.
“The affordability of natural gas is a critical reason why more than 500,000 families signed up for natural gas space heating, rather than electric heat pumps, over the past five years,” the AGA said.
US well placed to export LNG and other fuels as per capital domestic use is lowest since 1967
The United States is well placed to export liquefied natural gas and other energy products to countries around the world from its growing surplus as Americans used an average of 61 million British thermal units (Btu) of energy per capita in the residential sector, a 2 percent fall from the previous year and the lowest since 1967.
