Beware The Rush To Electrification

Back in February, people across the United States looked on as a deep freeze in Texas led to unexpected and devastating power outages. It was hard to watch and, we know, much harder to experience. We’re seeing that a few times a year, our power is knocked out by a storm and huge numbers of families are stuck without power for extended periods of time.

Slowing Down The Push To “Electrify Everything”

Even with unfortunate events like this one, we see many state governments moving forward with efforts to “electrify everything.” It is seen as a solution to protecting the environment and often includes plans to eliminate fossil-fuel heating systems, including heating oil, propane and natural gas furnaces and boilers—so they can be replaced with electric heat pumps.

At Pioneer Oil & Propane, we want to see an end to climate change as well! The catch is that heat-pump conversions are very costly and once the temperature drops, they’re not even efficient. In fact, when the temperature dips below 32°F, a home with an electric heat pump will need a backup system to keep warm! This is paired with the fact that electricity production generates the second-largest share of greenhouse gas emissions. (Transportation is first on the list.)

Bioheat® Fuel Makes a Difference

We believe it is important to take aggressive steps in addressing climate change. In fact, we’re already doing that by offering a 5% blend of Bioheat® fuel and energy-efficient propane to all of our customers. Both Bioheat fuel and the propane we sell produce near-zero emissions. This is not something that can be said about electricity.

Currently, the carbon-emissions-reduction strategy being put forth by state and federal government agencies is not covering all necessary bases, and lawmakers are not engaging with the heating oil and propane industries to educate themselves about how we are working toward carbon-emissions reduction already—and how the effort is growing.

We all want to see a solution to climate change. The issue here is that we cannot rely on breakthroughs that have not yet happened to an already unreliable electric grid. We need to be careful not to overload the grid, and implement realistic, effective solutions.

Contact us to find out how we can work together to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change.