this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

This is a common misunderstanding, to the point of it being propaganda pushed by oil companies to cause confusion, but electrifying everything is always better long-term than not. From a monetary stand point but most definitely from an environment perspective.

Your area will not always be powered by coal. It is already some degree powered by green energy, it will only get more green over time - and rather quickly with the price of green energy and battery solutions plummeting. Even if it stayed coal powered for a significant amount of time, the reality is gas takes energy to drill, energy to refine, energy to transport, energy to store and deliver the last few miles (km), and then some (or most) of the energy that reaches your house is lost in conversion.

Electricity is increasingly becoming free to generate, there is no refinement, no energy cost to transport, less energy to store and deliver the last few miles, and then most of the energy that reaches your house is used for it's intended purpose. Pure electricity is highly efficient and it's only getting greener.

As for cost, again I'm not wise to everyone's situation, but gas has a constant cost that will always be higher over the long-term compared to electricity that - if I had to make a bet - I'd say will pay back the upfront costs on the order of years and not decades at worst.

That being said, yes, we are all getting poorer and housing is one of societies big failures right now and there's no shame in not being able to afford the healthy, optimal items right now. That's late stage capitalism, we need to tax billionaires and multi-millionaires out of existence.

But the reality is gas is worse in every metric, and it is definitely worse for the environment regardless of the power generation sources your local area currently uses. It's fine if you have to use it, it's fine if you can't afford the alternative (although please calculate long term cost to likely save yourself money), just don't believe gas is better or cheaper or more environmentally friendly.