> its substantially more efficient than burning said gas (or coal) to generate electricity, then using the electricity to heat water. While this is true for ba

> its substantially more efficient than burning said gas (or coal) to generate electricity, then using the electricity to heat water. While this is true for basic resistive electric water heaters it's not for modern heat pump water heater which have energy factors of 3.5x which more then makes up for the 34% efficiency of a simple gas power plant (more modern combined cycle plants are 50-60% efficient) and the 95% efficiency of the grid. Still works out much cheaper to use gas than electricity for heating in California with gas at $0.06/kWh vs $0.26/kWh for electricity.