I can't imagine that you
hear this
phrase anywhere outside of the
Northeast.
Anyway, on the newsradio station I have my clock radio set to, you frequently hear ads from the oil heat suppliers, telling people not to convert from oil heat to gas heat, or to install oil heat in new construction. The inference they make by calling it "safe, reliable oil heat" is that gas heat is a deathtrap and an explosion waiting to happen. Of course, they can't actually say that, because that would be slander, and there's also the fact that if there are gas pipes in your neighborhood it hardly matters whether they go to your house or not, and you might just have a huge natural gas pipeline nearby which if it explodes it won't matter if you're heating your house with bacon fat, you're going to go up with it.
So, use whatever kind of heat you want, really.