Reality #1: The Energy People and Businesses Actually Use

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The Pacific Northwest is powered by two essential energy systems: electricity and natural gas. Both serve millions of people, both support economic growth, and both are necessary to meet the region's reliability, affordability, resilience, and environmental goals. As electricity demand grows across the region, it is equally important to recognize the scale, value, and daily importance of the natural gas system.

Natural gas is not a secondary energy resource or a supporting actor in the region's energy story. It is a primary energy delivery network that operates alongside the electric system and enables the Northwest economy to function every day.

Millions of Northwest families and businesses rely on natural gas directly every day to heat

their homes, provide hot water, cook meals, power businesses and fuel industrial processes. Electricity is indispensable, and so is natural gas. Understanding both systems—and the distinct strengths each brings to the region—is essential to making sound energy policy.

According to the Northwest Gas Association's 2026 Pacific Northwest Gas Market Outlook, the region's natural gas system directly serves approximately 3.7 million households—nearly 10 million people—and almost 350,000 businesses across British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Altogether, natural gas supplies roughly half of the Pacific Northwest's non-transportation energy needs, making it one of the region's most significant energy resources. These figures demonstrate that natural gas is both infrastructure and energy supply: a large-scale delivery system that customers depend on every single day.

The benefits of that direct use are substantial. For homeowners, natural gas provides dependable space heating during the coldest winter months, abundant hot water, responsive cooking, clothes drying and backup comfort when severe weather strikes. Because natural gas is delivered through an extensive underground pipeline network, it provides reliable energy directly to homes without adding demand to an already stressed electric grid during periods of peak heating demand.

For businesses, direct natural gas use supports affordability, productivity, and operational reliability. Restaurants depend on it to prepare meals efficiently. Hotels provide hot water and comfortable rooms for guests. Schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and public buildings rely on natural gas to maintain safe indoor environments throughout the year. Commercial laundries, food processors, greenhouses, and countless small businesses use natural gas because it delivers high-temperature heat efficiently and economically.

The industrial sector depends on natural gas even more extensively. Manufacturers use it to produce steel, cement, glass, chemicals, fertilizer, forest products, food products, and many of the essential materials that support modern life. In many industrial applications, direct natural gas use provides temperatures and process heat that are difficult, costly, or currently impractical to replace with electricity alone. Maintaining a competitive manufacturing sector requires access to reliable and affordable energy sources capable of meeting these demanding operational needs.

Direct natural gas use strengthens the overall energy system by allowing the region to meet energy needs through two complementary infrastructure networks. Every therm of natural gas used directly in a home or business is energy that does not need to be generated, transmitted and distributed as electricity. By delivering energy at the point of use, the natural gas system reduces pressure on the electric grid during periods of peak demand, enhances overall system resilience, and affirms the value of a balanced energy strategy that fully uses both systems.

The NWGA's Outlook also notes that regional natural gas demand has grown by approximately 30 percent since 1999, reflecting population growth, economic expansion and the continued importance of natural gas throughout the regional economy. While the composition of demand has evolved—with increased use for electric generation and changing industrial patterns—the direct use of natural gas remains foundational for millions of residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

As policymakers consider strategies to reduce emissions and modernize the region's energy infrastructure, the priority should be to build on the strengths of both major energy systems. The direct use of natural gas accounts for a small portion (16%) of the region’s emissions.  Natural gas utilities are already investing in lower-carbon solutions, including renewable natural gas, hydrogen blending, system modernization, methane emissions reductions, and advanced technologies that continue to lower the carbon intensity of delivered energy. These innovations are not separate from the region's energy future—they are part of it, building on an existing delivery system that has served the Northwest safely and reliably for generations.

The Pacific Northwest's energy future will require more electricity, and it will require continued investment in the natural gas system. Realistic planning must recognize how energy is actually consumed today and how both infrastructure networks can work together to serve customers tomorrow. Homes, businesses, manufacturers, hospitals, and critical public services depend on direct natural gas use because it provides reliable, efficient, and affordable energy exactly where it is needed.

The energy conversation should start from a position of balance: the Pacific Northwest depends on both electricity and natural gas. These are not competing ideas; they are complementary energy systems that together provide the reliability, resilience, affordability, and flexibility necessary to support a growing economy while meeting the region's evolving energy and environmental goals.

Recognizing the energy people actually use is the first step toward developing balanced energy policies. The data are clear: direct natural gas use remains one of the Pacific Northwest's greatest energy strengths. It is not a bridge, backup, or afterthought. It is an enduring and evolving part of the region's energy future, standing alongside electricity as a core pillar of how the Northwest powers its homes, businesses, industries, and communities.