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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> What they don't note is that
> most of the heat from gas, 2/3 in most cases, goes up in the air,

I suppose if one left a burner wide open that that much might be 
wasted but it is hard to imagine that it could happen without burning the food.

> particularly in ovens where it leaves via venting since you have to vent gas
> and don't have to vent electric.

Not true. Our 1923 Wedgewood is vented. Our 1950s Wedgewood is not 
vented because by then people knew better. That mindset came from the 
era when gas was produced from coal and was in fact poisonous. Old 
movies showed people threatening to kill themselves by putting their 
head in the oven. Both natural gas and propane are not poisonous. 
There are in fact many approved ventless gas heaters in common use 
today. The only potentially objectionable by-product is water vapor.

> Also, as I said, electric is cleaner.  Burning gas is a dirty business and
> your walls and ceiling will attest to that.

The water vapor can moisturize wall and ceiling surfaces, acting as 
an adhesive for dust. All cooking produces moisture. A pot of 
simmering pasta produces far more moisture than the gas that is 
heating it. Moisture and odors from cooking is why the gods invented vents.

> And, I
> personally, like being able to actually have a burner that will do a real
> simmer for things like Noni's old-fashioned, traditional spaghetti sauce.

A good gas burner will burn at very little more than pilot size. I 
could simmer a pint of water in a pot.