When momentum starts to build, people like to exclaim, "Now we're cooking with gas!" Well, a recent study out of Stanford University might have us re-thinking that expression. The study found that methane leaking from stoves inside U.S. homes has the same climate impact as about half a million gasoline-powered cars and, furthermore, that these stoves expose household members to respiratory disease-triggering pollutants. Findings like these are prompting some jurisdictions, like the US's largest urban center, New York City, to ban gas hook-ups in new buildings. Keep in mind that approximately 2000 new buildings are erected there each year. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Eric Lebel, part of the Stanford research team that conducted the study, to learn more about their methods and findings. We discuss the impact that America’s 40 million gas stoves might be having on the air we breathe (both inside and out of our homes), how to transition away from these types of appliances, and why in many ways it’s an environmental justice issue.

Narrator  0:01  This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability, I'm Alex Wise

Eric Lebel  0:25  The big take home message I would like people to take away from this study is that it's the gas stove is when considering its impact. It's not just a climate impact. It's not just a health impact, but it's really the two together and I hope the narrative around the gas bands will be able to use these data in tandem with each other to advance the narrative that the gas stoves are both a hazard to climate and to health.

Narrator 0:50  When momentum starts to build, people like to exclaim, now we're cooking with gas. Well, a recent study out of Stanford University might have us rethinking that expression. The study found that methane leaking from stoves inside us homes have the same climate impact as about a half a million gasoline powered cars. And furthermore, that these stoves exposed household members to respiratory disease triggering pollutants. Findings like these are prompting some jurisdictions like the US is largest urban center New York City to ban gas hookups in new buildings. Keep in mind that approximately 2000 new buildings are erected there each year. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Eric Lebel, part of the Stanford research team that conducted the study. To learn more about their methods and findings. We discussed the impact that America's 40 million gas stoves might be having on the air we breathe, both inside and out of our homes, how to transition away from these types of appliances, and why in many ways, it's an environmental justice issue.

Alex Wise  2:19  I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Eric Lebel. He's a senior scientist at PSE healthy energy in Oakland. And as a graduate student, he worked on the Stanford gas stove project. Eric, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Eric Lebel  Thank you for having me, Alex.

Alex Wise  So I wanted to talk to you about the research that's been in the news recently about gas stoves and ovens and the methane and gas released that accompanies these appliances. Why don't you first kind of take a step back and tell us about what piqued your scientific curiosity as a collective?

Eric Lebel 3:07  Sure. So this project started as part of a larger project looking at methane emissions from home appliances. And looking at the methane emissions that are leaked from natural gas appliances in homes. And one of the reasons why scientists are interested in methane emissions from homes is that as a potential source of methane emissions, especially in urban environments, where they haven't been calculated and quantified. In certain areas, there was a paper in 2015 that came out in Boston, for instance, that showed that there was a big gap in emissions when you try and total the so...