Jeffrey Slotnick

“As an American who has served my country and fought for our freedoms, I am very, very incensed that somebody’s trying to tell me how I must live my life.

Why can’t I choose to have natural gas? Why should I be forced because we have a politically motivated agenda to decarbonize on a grid that isn’t even capable of handling it in the first place?

I prefer natural gas. My children have an all-electric home, and their bills are astronomical in the wintertime while ours stay pretty consistent.

I happen to be a passionate cook. I was trained in Italy, and there are just some sauces and things that electricity is no good for. I’ve tried electricity. It’s either too hot or too cool, and there’s no in-between. 

Every reputable restaurant in the world uses gas in its kitchens. This legislation will have an amazing impact, especially on Asian cuisines. You can’t use a wok on an electric range; it just doesn’t work. 

Are restaurants supposed to sacrifice their quality? 

Earlier this year, our furnace reached the end of its life, so we upgraded our natural gas furnace. It was a $24,000 investment, but we now have a 99% efficient gas system. We were willing to pay the extra because we wanted to be good stewards of the environment.

I’m a senior citizen—almost 69—and we are trying to watch our budget and keep things real and reasonable. So, we invested a little bit more upfront in this HVAC system so that we could have an efficient system and recoup those funds through efficiency later on by utilizing less gas and making better use of the heat it produces. 

And now I’m supposed to buy a whole new system?

At 69 years old, this was not an expense we planned for and will significantly impact our financial stability.”