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The problem is in the future when you decarbonize how are you going to do it with a gas furnace? Bio-gas is extremely niche and shows no sign of picking up anytime soon. Meanwhile your local power plant already switched from coal to natural gas, but in the future the grid is going towards wind, solar, and battery storage.

You can even install solar panels locally to cut down on transmission losses.

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As someone who has owned or rented homes heated with oil, gas and heat pumps (the latter two in the SE US), my experience has been that the gas and heat pump systems cost about the same same to operate. But when the gas system in our current house had to be replaced about 5 years ago, I went the path of least resistence and got the recommended gas unit. I really regret that decision now, especially given the small difference in installed price. Same with the tankless water heater (although there, gas was all that was available on short notice). The momentum in favor of gas is still enormous, and at least around here strongly influences what installers recommend. Maybe better educated consumers will change that. Unfortunately, I'm going to be stuck with gas into the next decade, with the only consolation being that at least I'm done with oil (the last two oil burners I ran were from the 50s, for steam heat, and cost a fortune to run: one winter in the early 00s about $600 a month).

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