I felt tense maybe a little threatened when it happened.
We were young and had just bought our first house and somehow the gas utility found out about it and showed up. With their truck at the street the man in overalls informed me he was here to reconnect my gas. (The previous tenants had managed to get their gas locked off with a brass padlock.) “No Thanks, we don’t want the gas reconnected” I said. The man had been so confident about what he was going to do on my property that he was a little taken aback. As we talked near the gas meter on the house he said, “Well you might have to pay money for a service call later if you don’t do it now.” I felt the push, the pressure to accept the inevitable. “Still no thanks, we don’t want gas”. He left. That was the first interaction with the gas company man for when we got our house disconnected from the gas network.
We got lucky. When we moved in there was only 1 gas appliance, a gas fireplace that had been hastily stuffed into an intact wood fireplace. So paying a monthly connection fee and paying for the gas to run a pilot light seemed like a waste since it wouldn’t heat the whole house and would be unpleasant in all but the colder fall and winter months.
The second interaction was also a surprise. Months later a knock at the door a similar warning that if we didn’t let them hook up the gas, they would take the gas meter. Thinking quickly, I accepted that this would make it harder to have gas at this house so I accepted this. They capped the gas line. Then, the 3rd and last interaction was a convoy of construction vehicles. One last chance to accept Natural gas or they would dig up the front lawn and permanently disconnect the gas line from the pipe to our house. I reflected on what it would do to the lawn to have a tractor drive on the lawn and digging a 6-foot-deep hole. I accepted this and about an hour later the lawn was restored neatly and our house was off the gas network.
I felt some pride, as if I was part of the resistance. Opposing the “natural (gas) order of things”. I was secretly excited that it would be equally hard for someone to connect gas again in the future if we moved away. They’d have to set an appointment, dig up the front lawn, install a meter. I think I was quoted a $1,500 fee for a new connection. (not sure that is real). But I felt so happy that we’d actually trimmed the “natural” gas (methane) network to prevent all future pollution in that house.
At the same time I felt a small weight knowing we would pay more for our heating because the house had electric base boards. But I comforted myself with the knowledge that sometimes doing the “right thing” didn’t necessarily “save money”.
Now I sit here 18 years later, and I have not paid the $10/month connection fee to the gas utility for 223 months. We’ve kept that $2,230. We have not paid $2,150 for a pilot light to burn continually for the fireplace. Right now as I write this I’m doing the math, but surprising myself. Really? A pilot light costs that? The connection fee costs that? I feel triumphant that we’ve taken $4,380 off the table for the gas company. I feel good that our pilot light didn’t waste 143,353 cubic feet of methane with its indeterminate leakage when mined and transported and the estimated combustion emissions of; 7,741 kgs CO2, 14.62kg Nitrogen Oxides, and other trace gasses. I’m incredulous. All of this is just for the parts of a gas appliance that are NOT useful. This is without turning on that gas fireplace. Its all waste and cost. And I feel brilliant because we managed to avoid it. It took effort. I had to sit down and evaluate it before the guy showed up on our lawn.
I’m meeting more and more people who have swapped out their polluting gas appliances for clean electric appliances. (Clean in the home and quite clean at the hydro plant where the power is generated by falling water.) They are happy. They have this feeling of freedom where they have one less bill. One less company trying to extract money from their wallet. They also have the relief of removing toxic pollution from their homes. All of us make decisions for many reasons, avoiding pollution, saving money, freedom from utility bills, but we did it because of Anne. Anne experienced gradual poisoning from her gas furnace despite having it inspected regularly. I don’t have permission to share Anne’s story. Maybe some day we can share it.
If you have concerns about the health of gas (methane) appliances in your homed. Please visit this website by Canadian Nurses for the Environment. https://unnaturalgas.org
If you would like to learn a little more and want to commit to reducing gas appliances and their pollution in your home. Please visit our pledge page. https://fvclimateaction.org/pledge-to-have-one-less-gas-appliance/
Thanks for hearing my story.