“They are calling for a “green new deal” that would shift thousands of homes off natural gas and onto electric heating.
Columbia Gas has offered to reimburse “reasonable costs” for residents who lost gas service and want to permanently shift to another heating source. Some area residents, rocked by damage to dozens of homes and the death of one person from the gas explosions, have expressed concerns about ever returning to natural gas.
But environmentalists will have to work quickly. Columbia’s offer to pay residents to cut ties with natural gas could also result in households moving backward—to high-polluting fuel oil.”
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