Natural gas proposal deserves to go down in flames
If you like your gas stove, you may not be able to keep it. At least if Nevada’ s legislative Democrats get their way.
On Tuesday, an Assembly committee discussed Assembly Bill 380, which seeks to bleed natural gas utilities through a thousand regulatory cuts. The goal is to kill the industry in Nevada in the name of fighting global warming and carbon emissions. That would result in higher energy prices and the elimination of many conveniences common in today’s homes.
The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen, D-henderson, originally proposed that the state phase out natural gas by incrementally limiting its use over the next three decades. She has since offered an amended proposal that drops the phase-out but still empowers regulators to ignore the market and put the brakes on any new natural gas infrastructure projects.
Dylan Sullivan, a representative from the National Resources Defense Council, a hard-left environmental activist group, told the committee that “one focus of the bill is to allow the state to have more control over future expansion plans from Southwest Gas,” the Review-journal’s Colton Lochhead reported, “and to determine if replacing thousands of miles of natural gas pipes would be necessary as the state moves away from the resource.”
Such candor is refreshing, if not frustrating. Mr. Sullivan is saying that greens hope to use the PUC to deny approval for any new natural gas projects, thus disallowing utilities from seeking a return on their investments in such projects through the rate structure. Without new infrastructure, utilities will be forced to turn elsewhere to provide the energy Nevada requires. At that point, expect the green warriors to outlaw gas-powered appliance connections in new construction — as they have done in California — thus driving up housing costs and making it even more difficult to replace old gas water heaters, dryers, stoves, grills and pool heaters.
Natural gas has the advantage for being one of the cheapest and cleanest fossil fuels, and the nation has an abundance of the resource. It now accounts for about one-third of America’s electricity generation, and the United States has become energy independent in part because of it. Between 2005 and 2016, U.S. carbon emissions fell 14 percent, and a significant portion of that improvement can be attributed to an increased reliance on natural gas.
As much as green activists yearn for a day when wind and solar can meet all of our energy needs, the nation is nowhere near that point. AB380 amounts to a regressive energy tax on those who can least afford it. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging utilities to reduce greenhouse gases by more efficient use of natural gas and other resources. But this legislation would start the death march for an industry that remains vital to the state.
The views expressed above are those of the Las Vegas Review-journal. All other opinions expressed on the Opinion and Commentary pages are those of the individual artist or author indicated.