Gas stoves emit toxic pollutants associated with respiratory ailments and cancer. (AdobeStock/ 932850601)

Elliott Negi

Thanks to news organizations and advocacy groups (including the Union of Concerned Scientists), it is no longer a secret that the U.S. oil industry was aware as early as 1957 that its products threaten the climate. Less known, though, is the fact that the gas utility industry has also been engaged in deceit about this harm as far back as 1970.

Now that there is a desperate need to slash global warming emissions worldwide, it is critical to rapidly phase out the use of all fossil fuels. That includes fossil gas, which consists of 85 to 90 percent methane, a significantly more potent heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide. A 2023 study concluded that as little as 0.2 percent of methane leaking from the gas production and delivery system would make gas just as bad as coal is for the climate—and the actual amount of leakage is worse than that. The EPA estimates that about 6.5 million metric tons of methane leak from the oil and gas supply chain each year, approximately 1 percent of total gas production (five times more than the 0.2 percent threshold).

Public health is at risk, too. Gas stoves, used in 38 percent of U.S. households, not only emit methane but also nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and other toxic pollutants associated with respiratory ailments and cancer. A 2022 study detected more than 20 volatile organic compounds including hexane, toluene, and benzene in unburned stove gas.

Despite mountains of data, though, the American Gas Association (AGA), the leading industry trade group that represents more than 200 investor-owned gas utility companies and their suppliers, contends there is no problem. Among other claims, the AGA maintains that gas stoves are a “minor source” of NO2 and dismisses the scientific evidence showing that they contribute to asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

FOLLOWING THE DISINFORMATION PLAYBOOK

The gas utility industry, which won over the public with its “cooking with gas” advertising campaign in the 1930s, found itself at a crossroads in the late 1960s when sales of electric ranges outpaced gas stoves for the first time. In 1969, the AGA launched a million-dollar advertising campaign (equivalent to $8.45 million today) to try to recapture the market, which it saw as critical because homeowners with a gas stove are more likely to buy other big-ticket gas appliances such as a furnace, water heater, clothes dryer, that use a lot more gas than a stove.

Since then, the gas industry, much like Big Oil, has cribbed heavily from the tobacco industry’s playbook. Below are some of its main tactics, many of which are detailed in an October 2023 report by the Climate Investigations Center, a nonprofit watchdog organization:

Attacking credible science. Since the 1970s, the gas industry has commissioned epidemiological studies that find no association between gas stove emissions and respiratory illness. Many of the authors of these studies failed to disclose their funding sources, but the private labs and companies behind the work, such as Battelle Laboratories and the Arthur D. Little consulting firm, had previously done contract work for the tobacco industry to dispute the link between smoking and disease. This tactic continues today. Just last year, the AGA contracted with Gradient Corporation— a scientific consulting firm with a history of downplaying health threats on behalf of its industry clients—to examine past studies that investigated the connection between gas stoves and respiratory problems. Gradient predictably found that the voluminous evidence presented in previous studies was “inconclusive.”

Running misleading public relations campaigns. In recent years, the gas utility industry has embraced social media to portray itself in a positive light. Since May 2018, for example, the AGA has spent more than $113,000 on 440 Facebook and Instagram ads that minimize the threat gas poses to the climate and public health. The Consumer Energy Alliance, whose 350 members include the AGA and 78 other fossil fuel producers, suppliers, and trade associations, has spent more than $700,000 for an additional 2,300 Facebook and Instagram ads over the same period. Gas utilities have likewise launched their own social media campaigns. One spot on TikTok, for example, featured an influencer in her kitchen parroting gas industry talking points while cooking on a gas stovetop and singing the praises of her gas clothes dryer and fireplace. The spot did not disclose who paid for it, but the influencer’s Instagram profile includes a link to the Southwest Gas website.

Hiding behind front groups. Some local and state governments across the country have responded to the climate crisis by changing building codes to ban gas hookups in new homes and buildings. In response, gas utilities in more than a dozen states have set up front groups such as Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions and Coloradans for Energy Access that appear independent even though they are paid by the industry to promote gas as “clean, reliable and affordable,” to denigrate renewable energy, and to oppose gas bans and other climate solutions. According to the Energy and Policy Institute, since May 2018, 15 of these front groups have spent $3.6 million on more than 14,000 Facebook and Instagram ads. The top spender, a front group founded in 2020 with a war chest of more than $10 million called Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, spent more than $1 million for some 2,000 ads.

So far, these disinformation tactics have proven all too successful. Gas utility lobbyists have persuaded legislators in at least 24 states to pass laws blocking cities and counties from banning or restricting new gas hookups. Worse yet, the federal government, which has known of their hazards at least since the 1970s, has yet to set a stringent standard for gas stove emissions. Enough gaslighting. It is time to expose the truth about the industry’s deceptive tactics and the dangers of fossil gas to our health and to the planet, so we can move to a clean energy economy as quickly as possible.

Reprinted with permission from Union of Concerned Scientist, Catalyst, Volume 24, Summer 2024 found at https://bit.ly/Catalyst_Summer_2024.