Author Topic: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes  (Read 1120 times)

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Offline Applewood

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Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes

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Berkeley has become the first city in the nation to ban the installation of natural gas lines in new homes.

The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously voted to ban gas from new low-rise residential buildings starting Jan. 1.

It’s not the first time Berkeley has passed pioneering health or environmental legislation. In 1977, Berkeley was the first in the country to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. In January the city banned single-use disposables, requiring restaurants to use to-go foodware that is compostable.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Berkeley-becomes-first-U-S-city-to-ban-natural-14102242.php

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2019, 10:25:09 am »
Excellent.

The fuel of choice that is cheap, safe and abundant will be off limits in the liberal havens.

Let them eat cake.
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Offline rustynail

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2019, 11:17:42 am »
Vegans hardest hit.

Offline thackney

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2019, 12:15:36 pm »
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...The ordinance bans installation of natural gas lines in low-rise residential buildings, including single-family homes and town homes.

It goes into effect Jan. 1 and does not affect existing buildings. Accessible dwelling units, including basements and attics, are exempt.

It applies to building models reviewed by the California Energy Commission and determined to meet state requirements if they are electric only....

So ban Natural Gas use and make them use electric.  Guess what is the largest source of electrical power in California generated from?  Natural Gas.

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/california/index.php
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Offline kidd

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Berkeley becomes first US city to ban natural gas in new buildings
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2019, 01:27:55 pm »
Berkeley became the first city nationwide to ban the use of natural gas in new low-rise residential buildings in a unanimous vote Tuesday by the City Council.

The ordinance, introduced by Councilwoman Kate Harrison, goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020, and phases out the use of natural gas by requiring all new single-family homes, town homes and small apartment buildings to have electric infrastructure. After its passage, Harrison thanked the community and her colleagues “for making Berkeley the first city in California and the United States to prohibit natural gas infrastructure in new buildings.”
 
The city will include commercial buildings and larger residential structures as the state moves to develop regulations for those, officials said.

The ordinance allocates $273,341 per year for a two-year staff position in the Building and Safety Division within the city’s Department of Planning and Development. The employee will be responsible for implementing the ban.

“I’m proud to vote on groundbreaking legislation to prohibit natural gas in new buildings,” Mayor Jesse Arreguín said on Twitter. “We are committed to the #ParisAgreement and must take immediate action in order to reach our climate action goals. It’s not radical, it’s necessary.”

The ordinance applies to buildings that have been reviewed by the California Energy Commission and determined to meet state requirements and regulations if they are electric only, said Ben Gould, the chairman of Berkeley’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission.

Gould said he spoke as a private citizen and not as a representative of the commission.

Those buildings are low-rise residential buildings, which include single-family homes, town homes and small apartment buildings. Therefore, Berkeley’s ordinance only applies to those buildings, but as the state approves more building types, the city will follow, Gould said.

The way the ordinance is written, the city’s regulations will update as the state commission approves more building models without having to return to the City Council for a vote.

“We need to find ways to move forward innovative groundbreaking climate policy,” he said. “This policy is really important and critical. It helps address one of the largest sources of emissions in Berkeley.”

In 2009, the city adopted a Climate Action Plan that aimed to reduce emissions by 33% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. The plan also commits the city to using 100% renewable electricity by 2035.

In June 2018, the council declared a climate emergency and called for a review of Berkeley’s greenhouse emission reduction strategies. The city determined in a report last year that gas-related emissions have increased due to an 18% population growth since 2000. The report also concluded that the burning of natural gas within city buildings accounted for 27% of Berkeley’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2016.

As the city’s population soars, the need for more housing has also increased. From 2014 to 2017, the Planning Department approved building permits for 525 residential units and 925 built units were approved for occupancy. More housing is expected, particularly with the Adeline Corridor Plan, which calls for the construction of 1,400 units along Adeline Street and a portion of South Shattuck Avenue.

Electric-only buildings prevent the installation of natural gas pipes and instead install heat pumps and induction cooking, Gould said.

“Think about a refrigerator and how it makes inside your refrigerator cold and blows hot air out of somewhere else,” Gould said. “A heat pump works like that, but in reverse. It takes outside air and emits cold air outside and provides hot air inside. They can also be flipped in reverse and work as an air conditioner.”

Induction cooking transfers heat directly to any magnetic cookware, including cast-iron and steel, without using radiation.

“It transfers heat right to the pot,” Gould said. “It boils water faster than anything else that exists. It’s very even, very quick to respond.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, Harrison’s staff demonstrated the use of an induction cooktop by making chocolate fondue. The staff placed a piece of paper between the stove and the pot to show its safety features. The pot turned hot, but the paper didn’t burn, Gould said.

The ordinance restricts developers applying for land-use permits from building anything that includes gas infrastructure, including gas piping to heat water, space and food.

Accessory dwelling units — built-in basements or attics of existing homes — are exempt from the ordinance. A public interest exemption may also be allowed if the council or the Zoning Adjustments Board determines that the use of natural gas is necessary.

Source:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/berkeley-becomes-first-us-city-to-ban-natural-gas-in-new-buildings/ar-AAEt30j?ocid=ientp

Offline kidd

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Re: Berkeley becomes first US city to ban natural gas in new buildings
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2019, 01:31:22 pm »
Berkley is a rational thought free zone.

They must think that electricity comes out of the wall.
Replace gas heat with expensive and inefficient electric heat...which is generated by gas or coal fired plants in N. California.

But at least they get to do something feel-good.

Offline PeteS in CA

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2019, 01:55:47 pm »
IIRC, natural gas heat is more efficient than electric (or simply used to be?). Electric stove burners warm up slower, and when a burner is shut off, also cools slower. IOW, this just shifts emissions from the gas burning heaters and stoves to the power plants, an emissions shell game.

Due to the SF Bay Area's mild climate, the impact of lower efficiency heating on residents might be small or slight. Berserkeley is right on SF Bay, which keeps things cooler in summer and less cold in winter.
If, as anti-Covid-vaxxers claim, https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/robert-f-kennedy-jr-said-the-covid-19-vaccine-is-the-deadliest-vaccine-ever-made-thats-not-true/ , https://gospelnewsnetwork.org/2021/11/23/covid-shots-are-the-deadliest-vaccines-in-medical-history/ , The Vaccine is deadly, where in the US have Pfizer and Moderna hidden the millions of bodies of those who died of "vaccine injury"? Is reality a Big Pharma Shill?

Millions now living should have died. Anti-Covid-Vaxxer ghouls hardest hit.

Offline Applewood

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2019, 02:30:35 pm »
IIRC, natural gas heat is more efficient than electric (or simply used to be?). Electric stove burners warm up slower, and when a burner is shut off, also cools slower. IOW, this just shifts emissions from the gas burning heaters and stoves to the power plants, an emissions shell game.

Due to the SF Bay Area's mild climate, the impact of lower efficiency heating on residents might be small or slight. Berserkeley is right on SF Bay, which keeps things cooler in summer and less cold in winter.

Welcome to TBR @PeteS in CA

I live in western PA and our dopey Democrat governor would love to see natural gas and all the fossil fuels go away.  Thing is, most of the alternatives don't work so well here.

Solar panels, for instance.  Some newer homes around where I live have them, but our winters -- which go on as long as five months out of a year -- are usually very dark and grey.  How in God's name would anyone expect solar panels to heat their homes exclusively?  The homes that have these panels still have to have a gas furnace or some other kind of fossil fuel heating source to heat their homes.    So what good are these solar panels? 

I have a gas furnace, gas stove and a gas water heater.  Anyone who tries to take those away from me is going to get a good drubbing.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2019, 06:52:51 pm by Applewood »

Offline thackney

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2019, 06:40:04 pm »
IIRC, natural gas heat is more efficient than electric (or simply used to be?). Electric stove burners warm up slower, and when a burner is shut off, also cools slower. IOW, this just shifts emissions from the gas burning heaters and stoves to the power plants, an emissions shell game.

Due to the SF Bay Area's mild climate, the impact of lower efficiency heating on residents might be small or slight. Berserkeley is right on SF Bay, which keeps things cooler in summer and less cold in winter.

Electric heat is efficient, what they gloss over how inefficient it is to make the electricity.

On average, you have 66% energy losses before it even gets to your house.

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Offline roamer_1

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2019, 07:36:10 pm »
So ban Natural Gas use and make them use electric.  Guess what is the largest source of electrical power in California generated from?  Natural Gas.

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/california/index.php

That's right... The only difference is that NatGas doesn't quit coming when the power goes out... Need I say that electric heat does?

Offline jmyrlefuller

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #10 on: July 18, 2019, 07:42:36 pm »
Apparently not the only stupid thing they did in Berkeley yesterday.

http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,368884.msg2012626.html
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Offline roamer_1

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2019, 07:43:01 pm »
How in God's name would anyone expect solar panels to heat their homes exclusively?  The homes that have these panels still have to have a gas furnace or some other kind of fossil fuel heating source to heat their homes.    So what good are these solar panels? 

I have a gas furnace, gas stove and a gas water heater.  Anyone who tries to take those away from me is going to get a good drubbing.

@Applewood
As probably one of the only people here that has actually lived off-grid, Solar is great for running fridges, freezers, water pumps and the like. It does not heat, and cannot produce that amount of wattage without extreme (and I do mean extreme) costs in panels and batts. You're talking stupid money that is going to remain in the end, unreliable.

As it is, normal off-grid, while utilizing solar, relies ALWAYS on auxiliary generator power, which often makes up the difference. And that is without heating at all.

Everyone I know that is off-grid heats reliably with wood.

Offline berdie

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2019, 08:13:59 pm »
I saw this headline earlier today on a news site and didn't even bother to click on it.   I knew it was somewhere in Cal.

Offline PeteS in CA

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #13 on: July 18, 2019, 08:33:59 pm »
Bird-Fryers and Bird-Choppers are not suitable for 24x7x52 base-load power. Because night. Because of winds that are to calm or strong. Choppers and Fryers require large amounts of land plus access for construction and maintenance.

IMO, Bird-Fryers and Bird-Choppers are taxpayer subsidized frauds and environmental disasters. And then there's the toxic metals used to fab the Bird Fryers that have to be recycled or ??ed when the Bird Fryers are replaced.

This was true in the 1970s, it is true today, and it will remain true for the foreseeable future. And probably beyond.
If, as anti-Covid-vaxxers claim, https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/robert-f-kennedy-jr-said-the-covid-19-vaccine-is-the-deadliest-vaccine-ever-made-thats-not-true/ , https://gospelnewsnetwork.org/2021/11/23/covid-shots-are-the-deadliest-vaccines-in-medical-history/ , The Vaccine is deadly, where in the US have Pfizer and Moderna hidden the millions of bodies of those who died of "vaccine injury"? Is reality a Big Pharma Shill?

Millions now living should have died. Anti-Covid-Vaxxer ghouls hardest hit.

Offline MOD8

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2019, 09:10:42 pm »
Merged Topics @kidd

Offline GrouchoTex

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #15 on: July 19, 2019, 12:49:15 pm »
Idiots

Offline goatprairie

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #16 on: July 19, 2019, 01:28:16 pm »
The idiot mayor of my hometown, La Crosse, Wisconsin just got together with other like-minded morons and declared that the city would be totally green in thirty years.
Most likely I won't be around, but I'd like to be there when all the fools find out they won't be able to run anything while they're freezing to death in the winter.

Offline GrouchoTex

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #17 on: July 19, 2019, 01:43:15 pm »
The idiot mayor of my hometown, La Crosse, Wisconsin just got together with other like-minded morons and declared that the city would be totally green in thirty years.
Most likely I won't be around, but I'd like to be there when all the fools find out they won't be able to run anything while they're freezing to death in the winter.

@goatprairie

The funny party was that people will figure this out, and buy generators, defeating the whole purpose of not running fossil fuels.

FYI, my Mother was born in La Crosse.
My Grandmother married a man from Wisconsin, moved there had 2 kids, then got divorced when they were babies, and moved back south.
Grandma was kind of nuts, to be honest, so I'm not really surprised.
This was about 90 years ago, when divorce wasn't very common.

Offline Hoodat

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2019, 01:54:51 pm »
Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Berkeley-becomes-first-U-S-city-to-ban-natural-14102242.php

Typical libs.  They enjoy natural gas in their own homes, but won't allow anyone new to have access to it.
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Offline Hoodat

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2019, 01:59:05 pm »
So ban Natural Gas use and make them use electric. 

Hold your horses there, Tex.  Why should the elitist in power now have to give up their natural gas?  This rule allows them to keep their natural gas while feeling good about themselves for denying it to others.  It's kind of like being a Party member in the old USSR where you didn't have to stand in line to shop with the proletariats, but got to shop at your special Party store.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

-Dwight Eisenhower-


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-Ayn Rand-

Offline catfish1957

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #20 on: July 19, 2019, 02:26:52 pm »
Congratulations to the city of Berkely in their technological breakthrough of power generation.

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Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #21 on: July 19, 2019, 06:50:03 pm »
Am thinking of selling my Chevron stock.

It is the last bastion of the oil industry that remains for some reason in California.

It is a $240 billion dollar company situated in a state that hates it.

It just made a windfall in its failed bid to acquire Anadarko and it should have used those funds to make the move to a friendlier place.

That giant sucking sound is the profits being lost in the company as it remains in enemy territory.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes
« Reply #22 on: August 06, 2019, 02:46:17 pm »
Am thinking of selling my Chevron stock.

It is the last bastion of the oil industry that remains for some reason in California.

It is a $240 billion dollar company situated in a state that hates it.

It just made a windfall in its failed bid to acquire Anadarko and it should have used those funds to make the move to a friendlier place.

That giant sucking sound is the profits being lost in the company as it remains in enemy territory.
Newsom is coming after Chevron.  The California Dept of Oil and Gas Resources has always been the one government entity that takes an industry-bent.  The latest appointment of a political hack by Newsom has reversed that.


Quote
When Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has taken a more anti-oil stance than his predecessor, former Gov. Jerry Brown, ventured to the spill site for a firsthand look Wednesday, the sarcastic response heard across town was, “There goes the neighborhood.”

But the future of California’s billion-dollar oil industry was already being shaped by shifting political winds, building concerns about toxic emissions from oil and natural gas production, development of alternative energy facilities and a recent overhaul of the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, or DOGGR, the state’s primary oil regulatory agency.

“California can put a stop to the inevitability of oil spills by intentionally transitioning away from oil extraction,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. “The state must prioritize our public health and our environment over corporate polluters’ profits.”

“This case sends a really strong signal that the oil industry cannot just do whatever it wants — it must follow California’s environmental laws,” said Chelsea Tu, senior attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.

Separately, Newsom in June signed a state budget that earmarked $1.5 million for an unprecedented study to find ways to reduce California’s petroleum production and demand.

A few days later, he fired DOGGR Supervisor Ken Harris for issuing too many permits for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and allegations that several of his regulators own stock in major oil companies.

On his first day on the job, Jason Marshall, who was appointed acting supervisor at DOGGR, ordered Chevron to “take all measures” to stop the seepage at the Cymric field that has continued intermittently for more than two months.

He’s been frustrated by an inability to get clear answers to some basic questions: Why hasn’t the leak been stopped? Why did Chevron and state regulators wait two months to formally alert the public about the problem that began May 10?

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-26/california-oil-country-defiance
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington