Calls Mount to Prohibit Fossil Fuels In California Buildings

About half of all building emissions result from electricity use, and the other half from natural gas or propane appliances. As California’s electricity becomes cleaner, owing to the California Energy Commission’s most recent building code requiring all new homes to be built with on-site renewable energy, electricity emissions will decline. However, to cut the remaining emissions, fossil fuel-burning appliances must be replaced with all-electric units.

That’s the conclusion of yet another environmental outfit, the Building Decarbonization Coalition, which has released the publication A Roadmap to Decarbonize California’s Buildings. The group is calling upon California Gov. Gavin Newsom to address what it calls “a blind spot in California’s climate policy: emissions from homes and buildings.” The roadmap purports to lay out a plan to cut state building emissions by 20% in the next six years and by 40% by 2030—and to adopt zero-emission building codes for residential and commercial buildings by 2025 and 2037, respectively.

“Reducing the environmental impact of homes and buildings is both an environmental imperative and an economic opportunity,” said Lauren Faber O’Connor, chief sustainability officer for the city of Los Angeles, a roadmap supporter. “This roadmap shows that, together, we can cut energy consumption and reduce costs at the same time—showing the world that going green is good for your health and bottom line.”

“Methane and carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas carry a high cost for public health and climate in California,” added Tim O’Connor, senior director of the California Energy Program at the Environmental Defense Fund. “We need lasting policies to reduce our dependence on gas while increasing the market share of cleaner, electric appliances, which can lower costs and pollution to benefit everyone.”

In January, the California Public Utilities Commission outlined efforts to reduce building emissions, as it implements SB 1477. The legislation deploys $200 million to help make heating options like electric heat pumps more accessible to Californians through financial incentives for manufacturers and builders. “SB 1477 is an important step in ensuring all Californians have access to clean, efficient heating technologies,” said Pierre Delforge, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which supports the bill. “Electric appliances will play an important role in reducing emissions, while also helping to eliminate a significant source of indoor air pollution.

The buzz about the mandatory trashing of natural gas and propane appliances has the California Association of Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors, National Association, drooling. “Creating climate-friendly homes and buildings is actually a huge economic and workforce opportunity,” said the association’s Chris Walker. “Not only must we retrofit hundreds of thousands of buildings across the state in coming decades—buildings are a primary source of climate emissions in the world. The rest of the world is looking for the economic models and successful technologies to go fully carbon neutral. California’s leadership and success in this endeavor will provide an international template for climate change solutions in building construction and operations.”

“These goals are ambitious, but the climate crisis demands nothing less,” asserted Panama Bartholomy, director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition. “We know we must eliminate fossil fuels from our buildings eventually. If California stalls action, it will only drive up costs and prolong the serious public health and air-quality issues inherent in keeping our homes and workplaces hooked to fossil fuels.”

(SOURCE: The Weekly Propane Newsletter, February 25, 2019)