De Blasio’s Gas Stove Ban Was Intended To Help the Environment. Experts Say It’ll Backfire.

In December 2021, outgoing New York City mayor Bill de Blasio signed a bill banning natural gas hookups in newly constructed buildings. The law passed with support from environmentalist groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which said the ban would “eliminate emissions” by requiring electric heat.

There was just one problem: Almost all of New York City’s electricity comes from natural gas. That means electrifying buildings will increase emissions rather than reduce them, energy experts told the Washington Free Beacon.

“Emissions will go up,” said Mark Mills, a physicist and energy expert at the Manhattan Institute. “It’s unavoidable.”

It takes twice as many fossil fuels to power an electric stove as a gas one, Mills said, because energy gets lost in the conversion process. So without a relatively green grid, fewer gas stoves means more gas burned overall and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

It seems counterintuitive: If climate change endangers “the future of all life on earth,” as the president of the Natural Resources Defense Council said in April, why did environmental groups support a policy that will make it worse? – READ MORE