Gas streetlights are iconic fixtures in some Cincinnati neighborhoods, from Clifton's Gaslight District to Pleasant Ridge's Gas Light Cafe. They’re more than a century old, and have been the focus of preservation campaigns, public safety efforts and budget cuts over the years.
Now, gaslights are the subject of a study from University of Cincinnati researchers, illuminating barriers to tackling climate change. Their findings are published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.
Professors Amy Townsend-Small and David Stradling say there are currently about 1,100 gaslights in the city. They run on natural gas and burn 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And, the researchers say, they’re leaky.
The professors found gaslights emit about 4% of the fossil fuels they consume, adding climate-warming methane to the atmosphere.
“They're leakier than any other appliance that's been measured, like a stove or a hot water heater,” Townsend-Small said.
Her testing shows the average Cincinnati gas street light emits 1.7 grams of methane per hour. For comparison, gas stoves release 0.07 grams of methane and water heaters emit 0.2-0.3 grams per hour.
She says as Cincinnati works to transition away from fossil fuels and address climate change, there’s an opportunity to electrify gaslights. Converting the gas-powered lamps to electric is listed as a priority action in the city’s playbook to reduce emissions, the Green Cincinnati Plan.
But, people have fought for decades to keep the gaslights to preserve neighborhood character and charm.
“There's this complication that they’re very beloved. I think that overall, that's a very good lesson for the energy transition,” Townsend-Small said. “You know, people like fossil fuels; they like driving a gasoline car that makes a loud revving sound. They like cooking with gas. So, there’s a cultural, emotional connection to burning fossil fuels.”
The history
In the late 1800s, Cincinnati had about 10,000 streetlights. Approximately 1,000 remain today.
Professor Stradling studies history and says gas lights have been replaced over the years for reasons from cost to the fact that they aren’t as bright as electric streetlights.
He says around the 1960s, the city of Cincinnati was facing budget pressures. To save money, it proposed plans to replace hundreds of gas lights with electric lights. Many of them were on residential streets in wealthier neighborhoods like Clifton.
Stradling says people objected, organizing, writing letters and speaking before city council to demand the gas lights remain.
“Cincinnati was a declining city for decades in the late 20th century, and that's really when this the battle to preserve gaslights took off,” Stradling said.
People recognized the lamps gave a unique character to their neighborhood and benefitted their property values.
“People in Clifton started to say that one of the reasons why Clifton is such a special place, that people want to stay in the city, is that it has this historic charm – not just in the buildings and the walkability and the housing, but in the streetscapes themselves,” Stradling said. “A really important part of the streetscape were these gas lamps, which are esthetically quite pleasing.”
Many people still have an emotional connection to the gaslights today, Stradling says. But, he found, it’s more about their visual appeal, and less about the type of energy being used to power the lights.
“One of the things that I noticed most about Clifton's defense of the gas lights is that they aren't really that attached to the form of energy that's being consumed. They're really attached to the lamp posts themselves,” Stradling said. “In fact, I think a lot of people don't realize that some of the lamp posts in Clifton are electrified.”
He says electrifying the existing lamp posts would take adding wires and converting some internal hardware, which could be difficult and expensive. But, that could also strike a balance between preserving neighborhood feel and taking strides to combat climate change.
Read more: