What Happens If New York Buildings Use Less Gas? New York’s utilities keep investing in natural gas, but this conflicts with the state’s climate goals. Experts worry that ratepayers will eventually struggle to keep up with rising costs.

Basically what happens is this:

* There’s a significant fixed cost associated with maintaining gas infrastructure
* When there are fewer ratepayers, that cost is spread over fewer people
* So once more than a certain percentage of the population quits gas, it kicks off a spiral of increasing prices that push everybody who can afford to get off gas off it
* The few that are left are in real trouble financially.

This is why there has been a push in places like Ithaca, NY to do it block-by-block, allowing for distribution shutdown in conjunction with individual building improvements.