Line Extension Subsidies

Few home owners are aware that the methane gas industry (under the misleading marketing name of “natural” gas) forces you to subsidize their expansion to new homes.

It’s called a line extension subsidy, and new home developers get it to cut down the cost of installing methane gas to new homes. Methane gas is 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas over 20 years than carbon dioxide. So, we need to focus on electrifying homes if we want to avoid the worst of climate change.

You can read about it on this blog or this video about the subsidy

But why should you, as a homeowner in Arizona care about this subsidy? Well, in addition to the climate change issue, Southwest Gas Corporation is going in front of the Arizona Corporation Commission right asking to be able to charge customers 11.4% more on their gas bills.

Methane gas is not only volatile, in that it explodes, but also a volatile fuel in terms of price. Just look at the price of gas around the world right now due to the war in Ukraine.

But if you don’t have gas in your home, why care? Simple, the more we use gas, the worse it is for the climate, but also the gas infrastructure that transports gas from Texas to Arizona is notoriously leaky and sometimes explodes. It contributes to the record-breaking bad air quality in Phoenix.

As a home owner, you can reduce your carbon footprint, save money and clean the air by electrifying your home –in other words ditching the gas appliances for high tech gadgets like heat pumps and induction stoves.