Over the coming decades, while New York is legally required to decarbonize nearly its entire economy, utilities are planning to sink tens of billions more dollars into replacing old gas mains, according to a new study. Colin Kinniburgh New York Utilities Pour Billions Into Replacing Old Gas Pipes. Is There a Better Way? In many cases, electrifying homes is cheaper, according to one new study. By Colin Kinniburgh If you live in Brooklyn, Buffalo, or Long Beach, you might have heard it lately: the clatter of jackhammers as utility workers replace gas lines under the street. The process can drag on for months, as workers dig up roads and sidewalks and drill into homes to swap out aging metal pipes for new, plastic ones.

 In a state with one of the oldest natural gas networks in the country, replacing “leak-prone” pipes — steel or iron gas mains sometimes more than 100 years old — is a colossal task. And it’s not cheap: For most of the state’s major gas utilities, replacing these rusty pipes is the single biggest item driving infrastructure spending. Con Edison alone aims to spend close to $600 million a year over the next three years on this effort — one of the many expenses behind its current request to state regulators for double-digit rate hikes.  Over the coming decades, while New York is legally required to decarbonize nearly its entire economy, utilities are planning to sink tens of billions more dollars into replacing old gas mains, according to a new study by the climate think tank Switchbox. That’s despite the fact that, in some cases, it would be cheaper to remove them and install cleaner alternatives for every customer they serve.