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I don't own a gas stove. In fact, my house has no gas at all -- everything is hydro! So, I cannot turn to gas. I'm convinced that my little electric kettle uses far less energy than turning on a stove burner. Both are electric but the kettle is specifically designed to boil water and does an excellent job.

i think plug-in kettles are better than electric stove coils, but efficiently boiling water in a kettle on a gas stove is better than using electricity because of the energy loss before it even gets to your outlet. it's not even just line losses between the plant and your house - at the plant they are basically doing the same thing...using fuel to make steam to turn a turbine to make electricity. it's usually only around 30 - 60% efficient, so that's a pretty big loss in energy right there. so i think using electricity to boil water is pretty silly. but i have been there with the electric stove - not much you can do about it!

if you have a gas stove, just make sure it's not on so high that the flames lick up around the sides of the kettle (heat rises...it doesn't go sideways very well). i constantly see people using tiny pans on huge burners - it's a huge waste. and only boil as much water as you need to use right then - boiling 2x the amount and then letting half of it cool is also, obviously, pretty wasteful. i think most regular old stovetop kettles should be pretty efficient.

i'm not even going to pretend to be an expert on this one, but i'm inclined to say electric is better b/c you can usually purchase renewable energy credits through your electric company (basically paying extra so that they either source an amount of electricity equal to your usage from a renewable source, or put that extra money into R&D for renewable energy projects). but i do want to say that these are the questions that can easily eat up hours of my day if i let them. i'd love to know what other people think/know.

If you go with a stove top model I'd suggest an all stainless steel one (no plastic!). I own a kind of pricey one from Chantal, but it lasts forever. Otherwise, try an enameled cast iron one, like from Staub. Again, they are kind of pricey, but has a lot of the great attributes of other cast iron products—they get hot under low heat, the heat is evenly distributed, and if you go back for multiple cups of tea, the water in the pot will stay hot for awhile. Also, they're really beautiful!

I should add that if you continually have to re-buy over a lifetime, it isn't that green. In my opinion, I prefer to shell out the cash if I have it, and never have to worry about it again, especially with kitchen stuff. Get the good knives, the good pans, the good bakeware. This also helps with energy use. My good pots and pans distribute heat so well, that I barely have to have the stove on to get them to the desired temp. Of course, it didn't hurt that I worked in a culinary store through grad school and got a sweet discount.

the electric kettle boils the water so much faster.
I think gas...or on top of stove with old school teakettle you can control temperatures better...not all teas should be brewed with boiling water.