The Great Natural De-Gas
The flame is flickering for residential gas.
By 2030, ALL homes will be compelled to convert their fossil gas use to electricity - due to both the increasing cost of gas and as part of our need to restrict global warming to +1.5°C > 2005 levels.
Read on for the Why, What, Which to fully electrify your household, ahead of the approaching demand/supply bottleneck.
Why electrify your gas appliances?
What is 'Natural' Gas?
Save 80% on running costs
'Natural' gas is one of the great branding success stories of the 20th century. 'Natural' implies unadulterated & healthy - the purity of Mother Nature bottled.
Natural Gas is a different beast. It's literally 'natural', being found underground - like coal & uranium - but when mined and consumed, becomes toxic for humanity and the planet.
In its natural state this fossil formed gas is actually a composite of methane (70-90%) with lesser amounts of ethane, propane & butane. The Natural Town Gas that households burn is actually distilled methane with the remaining secondary 'wet' gases extracted.
It's easy to agree that methane is a more problematic product to market than natural gas!
Why is methane more harmful than coal?
Methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it leeches to the atmosphere. So methane sets the pace for warming in the near term and atmospheric concentration of methane is increasing faster now than at any time since the 1980s.
Cutting carbon dioxide on its own can't prevent a climate catastrophe. Containing methane emissions is the fastest opportunity we have to slow the rate of global warming.
To restrict Global Warming to +1.5C, in addition to sharp reductions in coal and petrol consumption, we must also eliminate natural gas extraction and use by 2030.
The rising price of natural gas
Extracting fossil gas today is much more expensive to extract, requiring the fracking of deeper deposits of shale.
At the same time Australia's gas exports have grown 6x fold leaving less for domestic use. Between 2014-2022 the domestic price for gas has grown 300% due to the need to purchase unallocated gas supply at expensive international rates. A current shortage of global supply, due to market instability caused by the war in Ukraine, has seen prices rise +50% over the first half of 2022 alone.
This has impacted domestic gas use with less households using gas for household heating. Sales of electric induction cooktops are also now skyrocketing.
