Are there occasions where having natural gas available in a house would be essential?<p>Aside from an apartment that had a gas stove and gas-powered water heater, the houses I've lived in always had all-electric, and the overall experiential difference between the two circumstances was unremarkable (in my opinion).<p>Hot water worked fine with either a gas or electric water heater, and the stove was really the only "daily-use" item that had an obvious difference, but the functionality was fine either way (stuff still got hot on top the burners or in the oven). If I specifically wanted an actual gas flame for cooking, I just used a $20 tabletop camping grill with a small propane tank. This "adjustment" was a very minimal effort way to deal with not having gas pipes.<p>Overall, if not having natural gas saves infrastructure costs (and tax dollars) from being spent maintaining natural gas pipes, and also removes any need to worry about carbon monoxide and having detectors installed, then this seems like not a big deal to adjust to.