Colorado homes do not have an emissions problem and taking away people’s access to natural gas for heating and cooking would endanger their lives, cost them thousands of dollars and do virtually nothing to combat climate change.  It is wrong to force Coloradans to abandon their preferred home fuel when it is clean, affordable, efficient and produced in their own backyard. 

Around 75% of Colorado residences use natural gas as their primary heating source, and around 65% use the fuel as their primary cooking source.  In December 2025, the state’s Public Utilities Commission passed a Clean Heat Plan requiring a 41% reduction by 2035 and full elimination of heating and cooking emissions by 2050.  Since then, the state has repeatedly rejected utilities’ plans to extend and update natural gas pipelines.  Simply put, Colorado is forcing consumers off their preferred fuel. 

Colorado’s population grew 25% between 2007 and 2024, almost twice the pace of the rest of the U.S. Yet over that time, Colorado dropped CO2 emissions by 20%. Colorado ranks 36th on the U.S. carbon intensity scale, remarkable for the 15th largest economy and eighth-largest producer of natural gas. 

Residential CO2 emissions are also down 12% since their 2019 peak.  Colorado residences account for just 10% of the state’s CO2 emissions, only 0.16% of U.S. emissions and only 0.019% of global emissions. If we want to combat CO2, we will do far better to focus our time and resources on the transportation, industrial and power sectors — and let Coloradans do what they want with their own homes. 

Colorado’s remarkable progress comes largely from replacing coal-fired electricity with renewables and natural gas. And it takes both. 

Natural gas generation fluctuates wildly to cover wind and solar gyrations throughout the day and year. Summer wind generation drops 20-30% from winter peaks, and winter solar can fall to a third of its summer peak. Even month-to-month, the pattern is rarely smooth.  As any Coloradan knows, spring and fall are complete wildcards and utilization rates of renewable power installations vary dramatically as a result. 

Natural gas must fill the gaps because no battery technology can cover weeklong periods.  

Electrifying residential heat would worsen the call on fossil fuels in winter because solar and wind generation drop simultaneously during cold spells.  Natural gas is the cleanest power sources during a polar vortex or similar event. 

Electric heat pumps are especially inefficient in extreme cold.  They revert to resistance heating once the difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures exceeds roughly 40°F (which is most of the Colorado winter). Resistance heating is what those orange glowing space heaters use, and as any owner knows, those pull an enormous amount of power. 

This stacking of risks is a recipe for disaster. Grids fail for many reasons, but a classic mechanism is a sudden drop in supply colliding with an extreme demand spike. 

I lived through five days of power outages in Texas during Winter Storm Uri from just such an event. My heating was electric, so my house hit 40°F within hours while it was still in the teens outside. If I hadn’t had a petroleum-powered car to escape, or if temperatures had been as low as Colorado’s can get, I don’t know what would have happened. Tragically, 246 people died in Texas during Uri. Cold kills. 

There is also acute danger in windy areas. Xcel Energy conducts controlled blackouts on days when downed wires might spark wildfires, and many of these moments occur during the winter.  Last December, some Coloradans went without power for several days. That is a deadly situation with an electric heat pump. 

Heat pumps in extreme cold are also idiotic from a climate perspective. Home furnaces are efficient, converting 80-90% of natural gas’ energy into useful heat. A natural gas turbine is 45% efficient at best, and we lose another 10-15% in transmission. In the coldest months, Colorado would burn twice as much natural gas to power heat pumps as it would in traditional furnaces, generating twice the CO2. 

Finally, retrofits from furnaces to electric heat pumps have an immense cost. Depending on a home’s size and age, heat pumps run about $10,000 to $40,000, with the median near $25,000.  This is before considering the increased power bills. Electricity prices are rising, and Colorado ranks 25th in the nation for power prices, while remaining one of the 10 cheapest natural gas states. 

Mandates forcing Coloradans onto heat pumps, and taxpayer-funded incentives chasing the same goal, are not wise policy. It’s simply cruel for the state to force consumers to dole out so much money on senseless policy preferences.  Natural gas for homes is reliable, affordable, clean energy. Getting rid of it would be catastrophic for Coloradan’s safety and wallets. 

Kit Pfeiffer is a Colorado native, graduate of Colorado School of Mines and Rice University. He is a professional in the Energy Sector and serves as President of the Energy Freedom Alliance of the Rockies. To learn more please visit efarockies.org.