Nebraska becomes 26th state to pass fuel choice legislation, securing protections for consumer choice in more than half of America
WASHINGTON – Nebraska’s state legislature became the 26th state to pass fuel choice legislation on Thursday in a unanimous and bipartisan vote, securing the protection of energy choice for consumers in a majority of states across the country. Consumer energy choice preserves access to safe, clean, affordable energy resources including natural gas that offer a sustainable pathway to the shared goal of reducing emissions while maintaining the affordability, reliability and quality of life Americans are proud to enjoy.
“Thanks to the bipartisan action of now 26 state governments, more than 157 million Americans and 58 million households have a protected choice when it comes to how to fuel their homes and businesses,” said AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert. “The average home using natural gas for space heating, water heating, cooking and clothes drying has about 18% lower carbon dioxide emissions than those attributable to an all-electric home, and the average family using natural gas for those purposes saves an average of $1,132 per year. Over the past 10 years, American families have saved a total of $125 billion thanks to natural gas. Those are numbers we can be proud of. They also highlight how harmful natural gas bans would be for American families.”
Fuel choice legislation preserves access to natural gas in homes and businesses in states that have enacted them across America. Nebraska became the 26th state to pass such a law, joining Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Every state to pass fuel choice legislation has done so in a bipartisan manner.
Since 1990, emissions from the natural gas distribution system have declined by 70%, even as demand for and usage of natural gas has increased with natural gas served to 23.4 million more consumers and the number of miles of distribution pipeline increasing by 59%. Carbon emissions from the average natural gas home are continuing to decline 1.3% per year, while efficiency programs from natural gas utilities helped to save 1.7 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2020.
Natural gas is currently 3.3 times more affordable than electricity and expected to remain substantially more cost efficient through at least 2050. The affordability of natural gas is a critical reason why more than 500,000 families signed up for natural gas space heating, rather than electric heat pumps, over the past five years.