Electrifying Homes Is the Biggest Reno Ever. But It’s Worth It.
Ridding households of fossil fuels will raise electricity bills, but there’s savings to be had at the pump and through greater efficiency. Plus there’s helping save the planet.
Saying goodbye to those little blue flames.
Photographer: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFPIt may feel like the US stove wars are over but no. Stoves are, after all, the only way to get most Americans personally attached to an invisible fuel. More importantly, stoves are a mere skirmish in a much broader conflict: molecules versus electrons.
In the molecules camp sit things like gasoline, natural gas, fuel oil and propane. In the electrons camp sits electricity. Since the latter can be derived from zero-emission sources like renewable and nuclear power, using that to displace fossil fuels in more applications is central to decarbonization. Doing so doesn’t just require a mental leap — bidding farewell to little blue flames, for instance — but remaking more than a century’s worth of fixed assets. Think of the energy transition as the biggest, gnarliest renovation project imaginable. The check will be commensurate. That doesn’t mean it’s unaffordable.