B6.4 Natural gas transition *
Phase out new natural gas connections in new buildings over time.
Seattle has adopted an local amendment to the building code requiring all new commercial buildings, multifamily buildings above three stories, and hotels to use clean electricity for space and water heating, and to maximize building efficiency and on-site renewables like solar. The actual ordinance is here. Shoreline has adopted a similar ordinance.
Berkeley adopted the first such ordinance in the country. (Legally, it was grounded in the health and safety concerns about gas, not in concerns about its greenhouse gas emissions.) Overview from the San Francisco Chronicle. (They report fifty California cities are considering similar legislation.) Staff report. Text of the ordinance.
Other California cities have recently required or strongly encouraged building electrification by using California’s reach code provisions. San José adopted an ordinance.
Menlo Park’s ordinance allows gas ranges in one and two-story residences, but also requires wiring for an electric range. (Staff estimated that eliminating the gas connections for a new home would reduce construction costs by roughly $6,000.) San Mateo and Santa Monica don’t require all-electric construction, but require significant additional efficiency measures in new buildings using gas. San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors unanimously banned gas connections in new buildings as of June 2021. (The city had already required higher efficiency standards in buildings heated by gas.) The Sierra Club maintains a page with brief summaries and links for the 40 California cities with ordinances limiting gas in new construction; the Building Decarbonization Colition has a table comparing them.
Burlington Vermont is considering a “Building Electrification and Carbon Price Ordinance”, It would require new buildings that connect to gas to to be constructed “electric ready,” so they can easily become fully electrified in the future, and to pay a “building carbon fee” of $100 per ton for the emissions expected from the first 10 years of the building’s operation. This would repeat every 10 years until the building no longer is using fossil fuels. In response to the City Attorney deciding that the City didn’t have the legal authority to charge such a fee, voters just approved an amendment to the city’s charter authorizing it to regulate thermal energy use in residential and commercial buildings and to assess carbon impact or alternative compliance payments, for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Brookline, Massachussetts voters recently approved a measure requiring that people applying for special construction permits agree to go fossil-free in exchange for permit approval. (The State’s Attorney General had concluded that the city didn’t have the authority for its previous attempt, which simply banned oil and gas space and water heating infrastructure in new construction and gut renovations.) Over 160 Massachusetts municipalities reportedly have expressed interest in passing regulations similar to Brookline’s. The state has passed legislation allowing ten jurisdictions in a pilot program to ban using fossil fuels in new buildings and major renovations; the program will study the effects on emissions, building costs, operating costs, the number of building permits issued, and other criteria.
HEET is working with gas utilities in Massachusetts on pilot projects to replace gas heat with networked geothermal neighborhood by neighborhood. Gradually pruning the existing network would help avoid having fewer and fewer customers supporting the operating costs of the full network; gas workers would continue to do much the same kinds of work on the new pipe system. The aging pipeline network is facing $6 billion in maintenance costs, so some of that money might be better spent on shifting to geothermal. Geodelphia is promoting this idea in Philadelphia.
Vermont Gas Systems is leasing electric heat pump water heaters to its current gas customers, with an on bill payment option.
Vancouver BC will prohibit the use of fracked natural gas in new buildings starting in 2023. Eugene, Oregon banned gas in new residential buildings of three stories or less.
The Institute for Local Self Reliance recently did a webinar on the other ways that city policies can reduce gas use. (The local stuff starts about 25:00.)