San Jose Set to Become Largest U.S. City to Enact Natural Gas Ban

SEATTLE (Oil Monster):  San Jose is set to become the largest city in the United States to ban natural gas from many new homes in direct contrast to the federal government’s rollback of environmental regulations.

On Tuesday, the City Council approved a proposal from Mayor Sam Liccardo and four of his fellow council members to create an ordinance barring natural gas in new single-family homes, low-rise multifamily buildings and detached granny flats beginning next year.

The proposal would not affect existing homes or high-rise developments.

“Electrifying buildings is not only good for the planet, but good for our health and safety,” the mayor, Raul Peralez, Lan Diep, Magdalena Carrasco and Dev Davis wrote in a memo.

San Jose is not alone in considering such drastic changes. In the last few years, California has moved to require new developments to be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. And across the state, cities have begun to consider even stricter standards, like requiring new homes to rely on electricity, as they seek to combat climate change.

San Jose joins Berkeley and Menlo Park in enacting natural gas bans. Menlo Park’s ban carves out an exemption that will allow new one- and two-story homes to have gas stoves. But San Jose’s plan does not.

The vote came as President Donald Trump, who has scaled back environmental regulations aimed at limiting carbon emissions and advocated for coal, traveled through California Tuesday for campaign fundraisers.

Calling the city’s plan an “antidote” to Trump’s inaction on climate change, Liccardo said, “we know we’ve got a lot of work to do to address this crisis.”

City leaders also voted to require new buildings be equipped for all-electric operation, even if they continue to rely on other sources of energy in the near term, and, in some cases, solar power. And in a bid to encourage developers to go all-electric, the council said builders who choose to use natural gas should be held to higher energy efficiency standards.

 Courtesy: www.mercurynews.com