Berkeley becomes first US city to ban natural gas in new buildings

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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.

© Andrii Biletskyi / TNS Natural gas piping for stoves or water heaters will be forbidden in new buildings in Berkeley, Calif., beginning in 2020. (Andrii Biletskyi/Dreamstime/TNS)

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.”

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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.

Related video: The high cost of cheap gas (provided by CBS News)

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.

I am not an energy expert by any means, but my understanding is the additional renewable energy capacity required to generate the electricity required to power all electric units will be immense and will cost billions of $$$. It may be economically unfeasible compared to the relatively inexpensive infrastructure for natural gas, which burns very efficiently and with very little green house gas emission compared to older methods given the cutting edge technology that would be installed in new construction.

It would be the height of irony if they got rid of gas lines to residential apartments only to have to build more natural gas fired power plants to keep up with the demand for electrical heat. Even with the improved efficiency of mass power generation at a gas fired plant, there would be loss when transmitting power over lines and at great distances.

I have no problem with this as long as my city will give me a credit voucher to buy electric stoves in the units. Because its going to cost money to convert them.

Somehow I doubt they would though lol.

But in my case tenants pay their own electric bill.

If landlord pays all utilities, then I would say odds are about 90% your bill is going up going from gas to electric appliances.

Can't say how much though. Could be negligible, or it could hurt.

As a licensed plumbing contractor I have earthquake shut off valves on all of my incoming gas service lines. Then where each appliance is attached to the gas cock with a flex line, I have an OVER FLOW shut off device there too.

My LPG properties also have a special regulator with limits, that will cut off if too much gas is being consumed...

Those people have no idea what they are doing. Creating electricity is roughly 30% efficient, tie in line losses and end user items efficiency and the overall electric efficiency will be below 20%. Gas for home heating or water heating is 90 to 95% efficient. Not even close.

California has too much green electricity such as solar and wind. The fossil fuel power plants have to drop load during the day because solar and wind are so strong and they still need to power back up at night. As more electric is used at night than day the green house gases created by natural gas still doesn't come close to the amount created by electricity. Just plain stupid.

Idiots.

I will keep my pilot light LP gas stove till the end. When the lights go out, I can still cook my supper.

My LP wall furnace needs no electricity as well.

The demand for electric energy to replace the gas energy is going to surprise them. As our grid decays and demand increases, blackouts will be more common. Ain't California famous for "rolling blackouts". Hey dudes,16% of your electric power comes from nuclear plants lined up along the San Andreas fault. They now get over 30% of their energy from renewable sources, so they think they can take the leap(off the cliff).

what kind of vacant mind must a person have to continue to live in places like Stalag CA

Moving is one of the last freedoms we have.

In the past 2 years, the local gas utility has been replacing old gas lines with a new smart (my choice of word) gas lines. The old ones had under 3 lbs of pressure. The new ones over 40lbs of pressure.

The new lines have "circuits" (my choice of word) with maybe 10 - 15 homes connected. Each circuit has a smart shutoff valve - something like an electrical GFI outlet.

If this smart valve senses a sudden surge (shut as a ruptured line) it shuts down that circuit and notifies the utility. Great idea for earthquake fault zones if they're not already being utilized.

More from Bakersfield:

theblaze com

Berkeley City Council bans 'manpower,' 'manhole,' other 'male-centric' terms while 'he' and 'she' are getting replaced by 'they'

Dave Urbanski

2 minutes

The University of California, Berkeley, was once known as the birthplace of the 1960s free-speech movement, but violent protests against conservative speakers on campus in recent years seemingly put a blemish on the school's lofty status as a haven for unfettered expression.

And a recent move by the city of Berkeley shows it may be catching the fever.

What happened?

A just-adopted ordinance is ordering that all words implying gender are to be removed from the city's codes — meaning no more "manhole" or "manpower" or "chairmen" or "policemen" or "policewomen," CNN reported.

Now all such words are to be replaced by gender-neutral terms, the network said.

So what will replace "manhole"? That would be "maintenance hole," CNN noted.

And as for "manpower"? Here's looking at you "human effort," the network added.

The item passed Tuesday night without discussion or comments and was not controversial, Berkeley City Council member Rigel Robinson — the measure's primary author — told CNN.

"There's power in language," Robinson added to the network. "This is a small move, but it matters."

But that ain't all

There also was the matter of weeding out pesky gendered pronouns like "he" and "she."

Never fear. The ordinance indicates those two words will be replaced with "they," CNN said.

"Having a male-centric municipal code is inaccurate and not reflective of our reality," Robinson added to the network. "Women and non-binary individuals are just as entitled to accurate representation. Our laws are for everyone, and our municipal code should reflect that."