Gas vs Electric: It’s Your Choice

Gas vs. Electric;  It’s Your Choice  by Eric Stromberg, 2026 Candidate for Los Alamos County Council

Years ago, when the county developed its Climate Action Plan, there was an idea of trying to get the community to change their gas appliances to electric. The current thinking is that, if electricity gets cheaper and gas gets more expensive, people will
naturally switch as time goes by. People will switch naturally. When appliances need to be replaced, people might opt to go electric at that point. If a gas boiler for a furnace system needs to be replaced, people might opt for a heat-pump that will also provide air conditioning. Currently, natural gas still has a lower carbon footprint than electric.

The County’s hope is that the electrical supply from Foxtail Flats Solar, when it comes online in 2027, will change this and that the electrical supply will then have a lower carbon footprint than natural gas. Of course, there are many things to consider. If your house is all electric, what happens when the power fails? Everything stops. No
heat, no air-conditioning, no hot water, no cooking. If a generator is used, it would have to be a fairly large generator to power those loads. 

If a house uses gas for heating, cooking, and hot water, a fairly small generator could be used to supply power to the house. But if anything is used as a backup source for the home, battery or generator, it requires an expensive reworking of the home’s electrical system because a transfer switch has to be installed that will disconnect the home from the grid while the backup is being used.

The Los Alamos County Department of Public Utilities has recently added a demand charge. Electrical power is not used consistently throughout the month. Each hour of the 720 hours in a month are monitored and the hour that has the highest usage in Kilowatts is
used to add one dollar per kilowatt on top of your regular utility bill. As an example, if your bill is $250 for the energy used, and your maximum power draw was 20 kilowatts, 20 dollars will be added to the bill, making the total $270.  The County is asking people to switch from gas to electric and then charges them extra for using more electricity.   I voted against this demand charge.

Ultimately, residents must decide whether to switch to electric or remain with gas.  

I do not support our County’s forcing our businesses and residents to convert from natural gas to electric appliances.

Contact me at eric@electstromberg.com