If we can't reliably deliver electricity why should I trust the ability to reliably deliver electricity _and_ natural gas? Many gas appliances still require electricity to operate anyway.
> If we can't reliably deliver electricity why should I trust the ability to reliably deliver electricity _and_ natural gas?
To state the obvious, because if one or the other is out at least I have the other one.
That said, while electricity outages are pretty common here (California, thanks PG&E), natural gas has never had any kind of outage or problem.
So with gas I can still cook (gas range) when the electricity is out and I have hot water (gas water heater). I could even heat the house because the furnace fan doesn't require that much power so it can easily be powered by my small generator while all the heating BTUs come from the reliable natural gas line.
Natural gas is underground and virtually never has an outage.
A stove needs no power to run - you can light it with a match. And those appliances that need some electricity to help the natural gas can run off of a battery, or a tiny generator.
Natural gas is underground and virtually never has an outage.
What? I mean the obvious response is to point out that time that PG&E used natural gas to blow up a San Bruno neighborhood. After the explosion we found out that PG&E actually had no idea how much they could pressurize their pipeline (and in fact they falsified records to cover this up).
Beyond that leaks happen all the time, and explosions happen from time to time. I'm just gonna throw it out there, PG&E turns off gas service when there's a leak… causing… you know… an outage.
> On September 13, 2018, excessive pressure in natural gas lines owned by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts caused a series of explosions and fires to occur in as many as 40 homes, with over 80 individual fires, in the towns of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, all within the Merrimack Valley, in Massachusetts, United States. One person, Leonel Rondon, was killed and 30,000 were forced to evacuate their homes immediately.
One thing I learned around this time is in Massachusetts a number of wooden lines are in service and nobody knows exactly where they all are.
Neither are the overwhelming majority of electrical outages. Then again firemen don't usually respond to electrical outages, and most electrical outages don't trigger evacuations, so there's that.
Besides the claim was "virtually never has an outage" not "virtually never has a widespread outage".
And im not talking the boonies. Im talking just outside San Francisco.
Aside from the market manipulation outages of 2001 and the initial round of public safety shutoffs, there weren't widespread interruptions of service. In fact last year the only rolling blackouts in the Bay Area were more or less accidental as whatever city (Alameda? Palo Alto?) jumped the gun.
Gas is way more reliable than electricity in CA.
Meanwhile Texas had widespread natural gas outages in 2021 and 2022. It's been a few years since I've had a power outage out here, and given the current state of PG&E's gas infra I wouldn't exactly call it reliable.
The thing with a power outage is that you'll sit around and enjoy having gas appliances. Whereas with a gas outage, you'll sit around and hope your house doesn't blow up.
Oh if we're talking the rest of California… it's less of a service outage and more like a mass evacuation (8,000+ families). Then again I'd say regular leaks, fires, and explosions do not a reliable delivery system make.
Another tragedy of the commons: Leaking gas infrastructure pollutes, causes explosion risks, and puts a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, and gas companies just have subscribers pay for the losses. Not that PG&E didn't socialize risk while privatizing profit regarding fires.
Gas is much simpler than electricity. Electricity relies on the entire grid and control infrastructure. It's not something that is simply "delivered" despite our everyday terminology. Every single device on the grid, input and output, must be synchronized/balanced, thus outages cannot be resolved by simply flipping an on switch.
To state the obvious, because if one or the other is out at least I have the other one.
That said, while electricity outages are pretty common here (California, thanks PG&E), natural gas has never had any kind of outage or problem.
So with gas I can still cook (gas range) when the electricity is out and I have hot water (gas water heater). I could even heat the house because the furnace fan doesn't require that much power so it can easily be powered by my small generator while all the heating BTUs come from the reliable natural gas line.