FAQ: Natural Gas and Sustainability
Question: Is electricity cleaner than natural gas?
Answer: Homes using natural gas for space and water heating, cooking and clothes drying have 22% lower carbon dioxide emissions than their all-electric equivalent. This is because of both the average makeup of the electric grid and the efficiency of direct-use natural gas. Direct use natural gas delivers 92 out of every 100 MMBtu of source energy directly to homes and businesses, while the act of generating electricity and distributing it across power lines means that only 38 out of 100 MMBtu of source energy makes it to the customer on the electric grid.
Question: How much can high-efficiency gas equipment reduce home greenhouse gas emissions?
Answer: Efficient natural gas equipment is expected to cut home greenhouse gas emissions up to 40% by 2040. That’s one of the reasons U.S. natural gas utilities invest $3.89 million per day in energy efficiency programs to help customers install tighter-fitting windows and doors, upgrade insulation and purchase more efficient natural gas appliances.
Question: Are emissions from homes that use natural gas improving?
Answer: Indeed they are. Carbon emissions from the average home using natural gas continue to decline by 1.1% per year.
Question: Is natural gas compatible with net-zero emissions?
Answer: Absolutely. AGA analysis shows incorporating gas technologies, infrastructure, and strategies is an essential part of any attempt to reach economy-wide net-zero by 2050 thanks to improvements in efficiency, advanced end-use tech, renewable gases, methane mitigation, negative emissions, modernization and workforce.
Question: How successful are natural gas utility efforts to mitigate emissions?
Answer: Local distribution systems release as little as 0.1% of the natural gas they deliver, thanks to efforts to upgrade our nation’s pipeline network with pipelines from the most modern materials available. Emissions from the natural gas distribution system have declined 70% since 1990 – and we’re not done yet!
Question: How much is the natural gas industry investing in sustainability?
Answer: American natural gas utilities invest $3.89 million every day in sustainability, with 371 million therms saved in 2023, equivalent to removing 457,871 gasoline-fueled cars from the road.
Question: Are U.S. energy-related emissions declining?
Answer: Energy efficiency and the growth of renewable energy have helped drive energy-related CO₂ emissions to 40-year lows, with emissions from the natural gas distribution system down 70% since 1990 and those from the power sector down 61% due to the increased use of natural gas for power generation.
Question: What are the most popular options for high-efficiency home heating?
Answer: Families choose natural gas heat pumps over electric heat pumps 4 to 1, as natural gas heat pumps combine the advantages of natural gas on cost and reliability with the high efficiency of a heat pump in moderate weather.