This is actually a really good business for natural gas utilities to switch to if they want to survive in the future. They have tons of experience with pipes,

This is actually a really good business for natural gas utilities to switch to if they want to survive in the future. They have tons of experience with pipes, they can swap gas furnaces for heat pumps and exchangers. And it turns out that the areas that district heating works well with are really comparable to where it makes sense to pump natural gas. Yoi don't necessarily need heated pipes, just using the ambient temp in the ground is usually good, with very small bits of storage/heating.