*electricity . Gas is heavily used for heating , cooking & industrial uses (e.g. drying agriculture like hops, boilers etc).
I raise this point since policymakers get confused and try to ban gas, only to realize how critical gas is for food & industrial applications that consumers enjoy after the fact.
You're correct that this ought to say "electricity" and not "power".
But I think you're wrong to think that gas is "critical" to any of the things you've listed. "Currently used" ... yes. "Not replaceable by electricity" ... no (unlike, e.g. air travel).
Electrical heat using heat pumps is cheaper than in-situ heating with any fossil fuel because (a) the base price per unit of energy is (or certainly can be) lower (b) the coefficient of performance is higher.
There are obviously costs to changing heating systems. But that doesn't mean that a gas heating system cannot be replaced by an electrical one.
I'm not aware of anyone saying "we must replace all uses of non-electrical heat pump-based heating with an electrical version".
My point, in response to the GGP (?) was the while e.g. gas heating may be in use now, it is not irreplaceable. This is quite different (right now, at least) for something like air transportation, where there is no feasible electrical solution.
you questioned "critical". It sounds like you mean that something is not critical if you can imagine replacing it.
To me, "critical" means that it is critical to providing the service it provides. i.e. gas is critical to providing food, if the gas stops, the food stops.
We don't disagree on that. We differ on what is critical.
Clearly energy is critical for food production and drying lumber.
But is gas critical? Well, gas is currently being used for those purposes, and if the gas stopped being available ... the effects would all differ based on the timeline for that.
If the gas stopped overnight, sure, "the food stops".
If the gas is announced as stopping over 5 or 10 years, the food will never stop.
The difference there is not that "gas is critical", it's that "replacing gas will/would take time, and we can't do it immediately". Anything that stops the flow of energy to these processes will screw them up, but an ordered transition from energy source A to energy source B will not do that. Ergo, I conclude that it is not energy source A (gas) that is "critical", but rather energy supply and its orderly and intelligent management and planning.
Most of it can be electrified. NYC has banned gas hookups in new residential buildings (I live in one and it's great). Industrial electrification will never be 100% but I've seen estimates as high as 90%. It will take time and money but it will happen.
If you're considering the total cost then you have to factor in the entire reason to electrify which is the environmental cost of continuing to burn dead organic matter. In that case, electrification is absolute bargain.
so it sounds like "bear infinite prosperity / comfort / security costs for dubious environmental benefits" . Have you thought about how to weight the costs vs the benefits? Are you proposing being poorer, hungrier, more miserable, less comfortable in the hot & cold season for "clean energy". so how much are you willing to sacrifice for it?
Nothing and we don't have to and idk what you're talking about. I literally have an all-electric home and it's perfectly comfortable. Heat pump works great on the hottest and coldest days (outside temp has been as low 2F as high as 99F). And security benefits are also very much in favor of renewables. There is no global supply chain for wind and sun in the hands of a cartel. You have been suckered by a lot of industry propaganda.
Why did you mention being uncomfortable in hot and cold season? I still don't know what you're complaining about. If an industrial process needs a lot of heat, you can burn stuff or use a giant heat pump. It makes no difference. Idk why you think everything is going to shrivel up and stop producing as much because it uses a different energy source. Thermodynamics doesn't care where energy comes from.
I raise this point since policymakers get confused and try to ban gas, only to realize how critical gas is for food & industrial applications that consumers enjoy after the fact.