This story was originally published in the Guardian, and is reproduced as part of a collaboration with Climate Desk. A Guardian investigation found that US gas utilities have partnered with one of the most trusted nonprofits in the country as part of a cynical publicity stunt to combat efforts to reduce fossil fuel use. Local Habitat for Humanity Affiliates have teamed with
[[{“value”:”The Guardian published this story as part of the Climate Desk collaboration, which is where it was actually published.
US gas utilities are partnering with one of the nation’s most trusted nonprofits as part of a” cynical PR stunt” to combat efforts to curb fossil fuel usage, a Guardian investigation has found.
Regional Habitat for Humanity affiliates have collaborated with at least four utilities in 10 states to construct “zero-net energy homes,” which are designed to use more energy than they consume.
The homes, which are offered to low-income families at cheap prices, have rooftop solar panels, are weatherized, properly insulated, and have been properly insulated to increase efficiency. But they even come with appliances powered by gas, a planet- heating fossil fuel that has been shown to degrade indoor air quality.
The homeowners claim that the homes lower electricity bills and offer cheap mortgages to flimsy families.
Eviction and climate breakdown are the two biggest philosophical crises that most people face, and the next one is worse.
” It’s part of our culture to truly give back to the communities that we serve”, Jennifer Altieri, vice- president of public affairs for Atmos Energy’s Colorado- Kansas division, said in a video announcing the utility’s first Habitat home in Evans, Colorado, in September 2021, which was provided to a single mother and her children.
Nevertheless, Atmos has personally described the project as being consciously launched in a “on the frontlines” of attempts to reduce reliance on gas.
Since then, Atmos has expanded the Habitat partnerships to seven towns, with plans to start coordinating related initiatives in at least two more. National Fuel in the Northeast, SoCal Gas in Southern California, and Nicor in Illinois have also partnered with Habitat on zero- net energy ( ZNE ) projects.
The utilities ‘ moves to support social justice initiatives come as the US is at war with federal, state, and local efforts to phase out gas and replace it with electric power.
The Atmos and others ‘ projects have received a lot of praise from gas interest groups. An autumn 2022 feature in Southeast Gas’s magazine Natural Living says the Atmos- Biodiversity partnerships promote “healthy living”, and that exact year, its Evans, Colorado, home was a finalist for an ESG award from the Southern Gas Association. The award submission reads,” These ZNE homes demonstrate that natural gas is a part of the solution to our low-carbon energy future.”
Habitat for Humanity International claims to prioritize climate safety and has participated in global climate negotiations. In a statement, the nonprofit said:” We know that innovation is required so future construction does n’t exacerbate the climate crisis”.
Habitat for Humanity claims that it provides millions of cheap homes each year to those who are frequently “among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.” However, in order to do this, it relies on separate, regionally owned affiliates, who can control how homes are constructed and funded.
Asked about the perceived conflict between the gas utility partnerships and its climate- relevant statements, a spokesperson for the organization said the group’s affiliates “engage a wide range of partners”. According to him, the world is “facing a growing crisis in inexpensive, enough housing,” which calls for” a multi-faceted challenge that requires nonprofit organizations, individuals, business partners, elected officials, and more” to collaborate with one another.
He claimed that Habitat’s partnerships and advocacy were “designed to address the housing crisis and ensure more people have a wonderful place to call home.” But critics say those arrangements appear to have opened the door for gas utilities to attach themselves to the organization and its reputation.
Itai Vardi, a research and communications manager at the Energy and Policy Institute, which provided some research about the partnerships to the Guardian, called it” a sarcastic PR stunt by the gas utilities.” There is really no good reason to build new construction that is n’t entirely electric, and we know that we need to transition very quickly and dramatically off of fossil fuels.
” Zero- shield energy” is a building standard requiring a home to produce as much energy as it uses. Builders second install insulation and air sealing to increase home efficiency, next equip the home with solar power production capacity.
However, energy-efficient homes that also use gas should not be viewed as climate-friendly, according to Mike Henchen, who oversees the RMI-based organization’s carbon-free buildings initiative. ” When it comes to climate, gas is part of the problem”, he said. ” There is this effort to promote natural gas as a clean energy, but it’s no.”
Methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term, makes up the majority of gas.
In the US, gas accounts for the vast majority of planet- heating pollution from buildings, which makes up more than one- tenth of all US greenhouse gas emissions.
A utility representative made the claim that the home’s air quality would be” the best quality breathing air that you can have” at a zero-net dedication.
The projects, according to the utilities, demonstrate that gas can be used to combat climate change. Describing its Habitat partnerships to American Gas Magazine, a representative from the gas utility Nicor said:” These homes demonstrate the importance of natural gas as part of a different energy mix in a gross- zero future”.
A cross energy strategy, according to Jennifer Golz, Nicor’s spokesperson, will increase emissions reductions at lower overall costs while maintaining reliability in severe weather. We think a healthy energy strategy that includes natural gas and preserves energy choice, rather than supporting specific fuels or technologies, will help to achieve the goals of reducing emissions while maintaining energy reliability, according to a spokesperson for Atmos.
But climate experts agree that gas must be quickly curbed to avert climate catastrophe.
Atmos and Nicor spokespeople, but they did not explicitly address inquiries regarding that academic consensus.
A representative from Colorado’s Greeley- Weld Habitat affiliate stated in an emailed comment that” we have much constructed homes with a variety of energy sources, including natural gas and electricity.
Daniel Aldana Cohen, a co- director of the liberal thinktank Climate and Community Project, said the gas- driven ZNE projects made an unnecessary compromise: They tie access to affordable housing to increased planet- heating pollution.
Eviction and climate breakdown are the two biggest philosophical crises that most people deal with, and Aldana Cohen, whose research has informed provincial proposals for a Green New Deal for public housing, is the result of the second one.
Experts have long been cautioned that gas-powered devices can release carcinogens and other pollutants. In recent years, a slew of studies have linked gas stoves to increased risk of childhood asthma, chronic lung disease and various health impacts.
People of color and those with low income may be at higher risk if exposed to these pollutants because they are more likely to have asthma and other underlying respiratory issues as a result of overwhelming exposure to environmental pollutants.
Gas industry organizations take note of a new World Health Organization-funded study that found gas stoves had no significant impact on childhood asthma. The same study noted a connection between gas use and pneumonia and lower respiratory infections.
” Utilities enter areas where the government lacks investment, and use that to market their goods.”
A prospective global gas stove ban was suggested by US regulators last year, but Biden later rejected it.
Yet the utilities behind the partnerships have consistently referred to gas as” clear”. A representative from the utility also made the claim that the home’s air quality would be” the best quality breathing air that you can have” during the dedication ceremony for a zero-net energy home that was constructed by a Habitat affiliate and Atmos in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Atmos and Nicor spokespeople’s responses to questions about whether the ZNE homes had gas stoves. But an Atmos representative in a December 2023 industry webinar said there was “natural gas cooking in these homes, in every single one of them”.
A representative for Atmos Energy pointed the Guardian to claims made by the American Gas Association, a significant trade association for personal gas utilities, when asked about concerns about gas appliances ‘ ability to affect indoor air quality.
Utility companies and their interest groups are using Habitat partnerships as a tool for people relations despite the safety concerns raised by the gas. The Energy Solutions Center, a trade association of gas utilities, cited the partnerships in a gas- promoting marketing document for its members, which was reviewed by the Guardian. Sonia Vahedian, the senior director of the Energy Solutions Center, cited new studies that stated that gas “remains important for energy security and will significantly contribute to financial security beyond 2050” in an emailed statement.
A representative from Atmos claimed that the project was started as a response to attempts to ban gas in buildings during a webinar held in December 2023, whose recording was likewise reviewed by the Guardian.
” In Colorado, they are a little bit on the frontlines, as much as some of the efforts to even dissuade people from utilizing natural gas”, a representative of the utility said. That was the location for our very first healthy gas-fueled ZNE home construction, according to the author.
Another representative continued,” We have to create a “marketable” product. ” Like everyone in the natural gas industry…we’ve kept an eye on the growing loud voice for alternative energy and squeezing out fossil fuels as an energy source”, he said, adding that the partnerships sought to show that “natural gas can be a part of that potential solution or transition state”.
The official claims that the option to” combine with renewables” is “kind of a great talking point that, Hey, we’re partnering with renewables, we’re not against them.”
Based on a number of summoned inside documents, a legislative report last month highlighted this strategy. A 2018 draft presentation from BP said one way to “harness excitement” about renewables was to suggest gas could be a back fuel source for wind and solar.
On the call, Atmos representatives added that Habitat’s PR department was “well-oiled machine”
Vardi said that utilities “enterprise areas where government investment is in need and use that to promote their products and brand its image through these kinds of PR stunts.”
Each ZNE home in these projects has gone to minimal- income members of vulnerable communities, including immigrants, people of color and veterans.
According to Aldana Cohen,” the gas companies are effectively using poor people as human shields to perpetuate a business model that is going to harm poor people the most.”
Certainly the only instance of fossil fuel companies jumping on this kind of advocacy is one. Reports show that utilities have huge funded Black civil rights leaders, the NAACP in 2020 urged local chapters to stop accepting this funding.
” You’re much more likely to really get completely self-serving interventions when you delegate things to any number of non-profit and for-profit companies,” according to the article.
The ZNE homes are frequently mentioned in commercial materials as reducing energy costs.
” Natural gas is truly important to the homes we build because it’s reliable, predictable, and cheap month to month”, a representative of the Habitat affiliate in Austin, Texas, said in a 2021 report on environmental, social, and governance investments.
The Energy and Policy Institute’s CEO, Kevin Akers, outlined the value and crucial role that natural gas plays in helping customers reduce their carbon footprint in a cost-effective manner in a 2022 call with economic analysts that the Guardian shared with the Guardian.
However, recent research has shown that older, more energy-efficient electrical devices like heat pumps and induction stoves can run for the same or even less as their gas-powered counterparts, even though installation costs can be more expensive.
In some cases, utilities are even using customers ‘ money to pay to build the homes. The Energy and Policy Institute’s ( E&P ) analysis of Mississippi public utility commission documents reveals that Atmos is recouping costs from ratepayers to build the ZNE homes.
Although the projects are billed as having “zero-net-energy” homes, it is unclear whether they consistently accomplish that goal.
SoCal Gas in 2017 collaborated with Habitat for Humanity of Orange county on a ZNE home, and has touted the benefits of “dual- fuel” ZNE homes over all- energy ones, saying customers prefer them.
However, a 2021 study conducted by SoCalGas and the California Energy Commission that examined two ZNE homes in Stockton, one with completely electric windows and the other with gas appliances, appeared to contradict the claims that gas had been used. The gas-powered model did not achieve ZNE status, despite the findings of researchers who found that the all-electric home produced more energy than it needed.
In webinars held next year researchers noted that even when ZNE homes do not achieve “absolute zero”, they can also help to promote efficiency.
Not all fully energy ZNE homes always achieve the goal, but Atmos claimed in a statement that its Habitat homes have met the zero-net-meter benchmark. Vardi continued, adding that the SoCal Gas-funded study provided still more proof that gas is unnecessary. ” There is really no reason to build new construction that is not all electric”, he said.
Some Habitat partnerships demonstrate that this is feasible.
In partnership with a Cape Cod utility, an affiliate of Habitat, built all-electric homes in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which in 2021 were the “best-rated” Habitat homes in the nation in terms of efficiency. Another affiliate in Massachusetts’s Pioneer Valley built an inexpensive, all- energy ZNE home that won praise from the federal government.
The federal government announced$ 2 billion for a coalition of nonprofits, including Rewiring America and Habitat for Humanity International, to build fully electric low-income housing this year.
The projects were started in the US because there was a bleak supply of affordable housing. A poll this year found that most US renters believe they will not be able to afford a home, and that a majority live in areas that are so costly that they are “barely sustainable”. In addition, according to a recent analysis of federal data by Climate and Community Project, US public housing stock decreased by 25 % between 2009 and 2022.
According to Aldana Cohen, Habitat relies on donations to support its work, which opens up the door to “dramatic inconsistencies or contradictions, like using cheap housing to support the gas industry.”
In another example, Habitat International, has accepted donations from the global fossil fuel conglomerate Koch Industries. He said,” You’re much more likely to just get completely self-serving interventions” when you delegate things to any number of nonprofits and for-profit organizations.
There is no justification to “lock in a second social policy priority,” such as affordable housing, into the fossil fuel industry’s survival,” Cohen said.”}]] This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced these as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. According to a Guardian investigation, US gas utilities are working with one of the most reputable nonprofits as part of a” cynical PR stunt” to combat efforts to reduce fossil fuel usage. Affiliates of Native Habitat for Humanity have teamed up with each other.
This story was originally published in the Guardian, and is reproduced as part of a collaboration with Climate Desk. A Guardian investigation found that US gas utilities have partnered with one of the most trusted nonprofits in the country as part of a cynical publicity stunt to combat efforts to reduce fossil fuel use. Local Habitat for Humanity Affiliates have teamed with
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