Top 10 Reasons All-Electric Is A Bad Idea

come areas across the U.S. find themselves with poor electricity service, even when it’s available. Within these areas, access to nonelectric sources of energy means they can continue to heat their homes, cook their food and ensure reliable energy use. Given the limited amount of funds available for the electric sector, money in these regions would be better spent to tackle a whole-energy system approach that recognizes electricity isn’t always the best option for them. 7. The grid isn’t equipped to handle full-blown electrification. Clean electricity generated is only as good as it can be reliably and affordably delivered to end users, and the state of that transmission and distribution system today is well behind where it should be. In the rush to advocate for an all-electric system, advocates may be overlooking the reality that the deployment of electric cars, heat pumps and other electric technology is poised to increase power consumption by 40% by 2050. Given that the present-day demand on the grid has led to blackouts, brownouts and unreliable power, this shift towards greater electricity consumption will only make these painful interruptions more frequent. 8. Individual buildings need energy resilience. If a customer, a building or even an entire community are forced to rely just on electricity for all of their energy needs — heating and cooling, food storage and preparation, transportation, etc. — then a single point of failure can interrupt all of those systems. Customers are unlikely to accept a nonresilient energy system and the idea that all their modern amenities could go down in the blink of an eye because of a single downed powerline. In contrast, customers who still retain a gas line will still have heating and cooking options, and customers without electric cars can still fill up at the gasoline station. 9. All-electric homes, on average, have greater carbon footprints. Assuming the goal of addressing climate change and reducing carbon emissions, the move to electrify all homes and actors on the grid is a short-sighted idea. When comparing all-electric homes with homes of comparable size and profile that use natural gas, studies find that the gas homes are responsible for about one-third fewer greenhouse gas emissions. So, if you’re seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of a building, required electrification is not considered a win. And given the common knowledge that the time remaining is narrowing to suitably address climate change before the effects are irreversible, pumping extra emissions into the atmosphere now does those efforts no favors. 10.Customer preference doesn’t

lie with electricity for many applica

tions. Consumer choice is a good thing, and the simple fact remains that for many applications requiring energy, customers prefer the efficacy and results they get with gas. Surveys show that almost 70%

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of customers prefer natural gas for home heating, water heating and cooking. Similarly, in homes with cold environments, many customers refuse to give up their wood-burning household heating because of the ability to store the wood in their home and the comfort this heating method gives them. Forcing all these nonelectric uses to be electrified limits application, effectiveness and utility that these customers desire for important reasons. For the full article, please visit https://propane. com/environment/stories/the-top-10-reasonsall-electric-is-a-bad-idea/.

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Six Outstanding Students Awarded Nearly $20,000 in Scholarships

The Texas Propane Gas Association (TPGA) Scholarship Foundation awarded $18,000 in scholarships for the 2020-2021 school year, in the amount of $3,000 each to six outstanding students. Narrowing down such an exceptional applicant pool was challenging for third-party reviewer Access College America, especially when it is composed of so many highly qualified candidates.

Since 1997, the TPGA Scholarship Foundation has awarded $145,000 in scholarships to members’ children and grandchildren from Texas.

TPGA awards a scholarship for students seeking to attend a 2-year college, 4-year university, or technical school.

Learn more about 2020-2021 scholarship winners:

Chloe Tang is following in her sister’s footsteps, and like her sister, Desiree, is earning a TPGA scholarship. Chloe is attending the University of Texas at Austin, where she will be entering as a freshman and majoring in electrical engineering. Chloe is the daughter of Sandy Tang, of AmeriGas in Houston. Chloe attended Langham Creek High School in Houston and graduated as Valedictorian. In high school, she was president of the National Honor Society and selected to be on the Superintendent’s Student Leadership Advisory Council.

Chloe was a member of many school organizations, including being on an award-winning Science Olympiad team, where she earned three state medals, and Mu Alpha Theta, where she tutored kids in math. Outside of school, she worked throughout her high school years for Kumon as Lead Assistant Instructor.

Matthew Pevehouse is attending Hill College in

Hillsboro, where he will be majoring in business to carry on the tradition of helping to run his family’s propane business, Independent Oil Co. - Dixie LP-Gas, also located in Hillsboro. His great grandfather started running the company in 1944, which is currently run by his grandfather, Lynn, and uncle, Chad Gray. Matthew has also worked for the company for the last four years.

Matthew is a graduate of Abbott High School in Abbott, Texas, where he excelled in sports. He was a member of the varsity basketball and baseball teams. Matthew also played select baseball for the Ft. Worth Gators.

In addition to sports, Matthew was a member of several school organizations, including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, National Honor Society, Student Council, and Future Farmers of America.

Jacie Oltjendiers will be attending the Home of the Fightin’ Aggies at Texas A&M University as a freshman, where she will major in marketing.

Her grandmother, Roslyn “Roz” Ortmann, works in customer service for Smith Gas Company of Floresville, Texas.

Jacie graduated from Floresville High School in the spring of 2020. In high school, she was a section leader in the Tiger Marching Band and extremely active in several organizations, including the Student Council, Gifted and Talented, National Honor Society, the FHS Theatre Company, and was the president of the Thespian Society. She also held other officer positions in other school organizations. In addition to busy school extracurriculars, Jacie worked multiple jobs and was very involved in her local community.

TPGA member company Shaw Butane has produced two 2020-2021 scholarship recipients. First, from Shaw Butane is Braxton Terry. Braxton is the son of Brandy Harrell, who works as an office assistant for the Groveton propane business. Braxton’s brother, Haden, is also a former recipient of a TPGA Scholarship. Braxton is attending Sul Ross State University as a freshman, where he will pursue a degree in Sports Management. He would like to someday be a high school football coach and later go on to coach college football.

Braxton graduated from Groveton High School in Groveton, Texas, in the spring of 2020, where he was an All-Star Athlete playing football, basketball, track, and field as well as baseball. When he wasn’t busy with high school sports, he served as a Little League baseball and softball umpire.

In addition to sports, Braxton was active in many other school organizations, even serving as an officer in the National BETA Club, the largest independent, non-profit, educational youth organization in America and Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America.

Jordan Brooks also has ties to Shaw Butane. Her dad, Daniel Brooks, works for Shaw Butane in Groveton as a technician.

While in high school, Jordan was an all-star athlete, playing on the volleyball, basketball, softball, cheer, and track and field teams.

Jordan was very active in many other school organizations, including FFA, National BETA Club, Student Council, Family,

Career, and Community Leaders of America.

Jordan will be attending Sam Houston

State University this fall, where she is majoring in accounting and hopes to one day become a CPA.

Jordan is currently working for Trinity

County Appraisal District prepping for her degree in accounting while balancing school.

Cassidy Rollins is the daughter of Angie Rollins, an office clerk at Buster Brown Propane in New Caney, Texas. During this 2020-2021 college school year, Cassidy will be a sophomore at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, where she will major in Business. Cassidy hopes to one day own a cheer gym with her business degree, a love she discovered while cheerleading at New Caney High School and coaching youth cheer over the years.

In addition to cheering, Cassidy was on the tennis team, Student Council, and a member of the National Honor Society in her high school years.

At Sam Houston State, she is a member of Alpha Chi Omega (AXO) sorority, where there was participation in a multitude of philanthropic projects like Domestic Violence Awareness. She is active in intramural sports in college, including volleyball, racquetball, flag football and kickball.

Cassidy is no stranger to hard work balancing her high school and college work and holding down a job, so we know she will do well in her future endeavors, as will all of our 2020-2021 scholarship recipients.

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You shop. Amazon gives. It is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you.

Go to https://smile.amazon. com/ to designate the “NPGF Scholarship Fund” as your giveback organization. At no extra cost to you, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to the National Propane Gas Association Scholarship Foundation.

When you shop at https://smile.amazon.com/, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection, and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that you are supporting propane industry scholarships.

Turn to Page 27 to find out more about applying for NPGF Scholarship.