energyTHEN: Electric Kitchen

Length 2:02

Created 03.29.11

Air Date 01.09.11

Video Transcript (opens in a new window)

[McGINNIS] Let's move now from the heat of politics to the heat of the kitchen, where chefs and home cooks alike still argue over which fuel -- electricity or natural gas -- is the best for cooking. More than half a century ago, utilities thought they had the answer -- the sleek, all-new electric kitchen. "Switch," they told customers, "to clean, cheap electricity, the modern way to cook." Check out this ad from Oklahoma Gas & Electric in this energyTHEN.

[Movie projector switches on]

[TEXT ON SCREEN] OKLAHOMA GAS & ELECTRIC. MEDALLION HOME. LIVE BETTER ELECTRICALLY.

[MAN] This is the sign of modern, total electric living. It means many things to many people, and one of the nicest things is an all-electric kitchen. Electric cooking is so much cooler because it's flameless. Incidentally, did you know it would take a half-ton air-conditioner to remove the excess heat a flame-type stove adds to your kitchen? But that's heat you don't have with a flameless electric range. There are no fumes and sooty products of combustion. Utensils stay bright. No yellowing or staining of walls and curtains, either. And completely safe. No pilot light to blow out, no fuel odors. It's as clean and safe as electric lights.

[TEXT ON SCREEN] Average cost of ELECTRIC COOKING about 2 cents a meal. O G & E.

[MAN] And with economical OG&E electricity, it costs just about 2 cents a meal to cook electrically. All this is why more and more women are changing to electric cooking.

In the 1950s, an all-electric kitchen was promoted as the prime example of "modern living."

This Oklahoma Gas and Electric commercial touts the "flameless" burners as the cleanest, coolest way to cook. An electric range, it says, eliminates soot, staining and what it claims are other unsafe aspects of cooking with natural gas.

In 1955, coal accounted for 55 percent of electricity generation, natural gas 17 percent and oil 7 percent. But now, natural gas is used for 24 percent of U.S. electricity generation, while oil has dropped to just 1 percent. Coal is still the top fuel for generation, accounting for 45 percent of the nation's power.