America’s Great Home Heating Divide, Visualized – March 2023
The Washington Post reports on Energy Economist of the Energy Institute at Haas, Lucas Davis, discussing the discrepancy in heating sources across the US. Regions like the rural South could stand to switch to electricity, while natural gas usage is more prominent in urban areas.
“Lucas Davis, an energy economist at the University of California at Berkeley, says that the South’s climate and energy costs spurred rapid adoption of electric heating. Starting in the 1960s, when developers were building new homes across the South, electricity prices started to fall significantly — due in part to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s generous power supply. Today, electricity in the South still tends to be cheaper than in many other areas of the country.”