Phasing Out Natural Gas in the Residential Sector: Climate and Equity Considerations

Building decarbonization is a core building block to achieve climate targets, and relies in part on phasing out gas in the residential sector. This transition away from gas is even more important when considering the lifecycle climate impacts of methane leakage throughout the entire gas system. However, climate change is not the only important consideration in this transition: our energy system holds implications for public health, energy affordability, safety, reliability and resilience. Depending on the pathway followed, the residential energy transition has the ability to either mitigate or exacerbate these impacts — and the distribution of these impacts, of particular concern for low-income households, communities of color, and other historically underserved communities who frequently face disproportionate impacts from our fossil-based energy system today.

In this presentation, we will first outline the non-energy implications of gas use in the residential sector, including for climate, affordability, indoor and outdoor air quality, reliability, and other dimensions. We will then look at transition scenarios that pose a risk of prolonging or even increasing the public health and equity impacts of building energy use, including the energy affordability risk for those who face economic and other barriers to electrification and are left behind using — and paying for — an aging gas distribution system. We will next use case studies in Colorado and Maryland to demonstrate an alternative pathway wherein systemic investments in building decarbonization can be used to alleviate energy cost burdens while reducing climate and air pollutant emissions, with a focus on reducing burdens on low-income and health-vulnerable populations. Finally, we will present a framework for considering the managed decline of gas infrastructure alongside the managed adoption of clean energy technologies to realize the greatest public health, equity, resilience, climate, and other co-benefits when integrated over time.