Berkeley Bans Natural Gas

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/23/berkeley-natural-ga…</a">Berkeley ban article

Thought y'all might enjoy reading an article on why Berkeley put the ban in place. It's actually not as crazy as you might think.

1) the ban is on new installations and has certain carve-outs

2) ban is part of Berkeley's plan to get energy from zero-carbon sources by 2045. It's important that when designing the energy grid and stack of the future that cleaner energy sources are selected up-front. That's just how intelligent planning works.

3) while Berkeley may be early in the trend, many other California cities are pondering exactly the same move - and such bans have already been implemented in other global locations

4) LNG also poses safety risks - esp in a state that has a lot of earthquakes. Simply put, there are safer, cleaner alternatives available, and a ban helps steer the energy selection

Some fun quotes:

• A state energy commission report released in early 2019 concluded that building electrification was “a key strategy” for reducing the state’s climate impacts, one that “offers the most promising path to achieving [greenhouse gas] reduction targets in the least costly manner”.

• "Governments across the US and Europe are looking at strategies to phase out gas. In California alone, dozens of cities and counties are considering eliminating fossil fuel hook-ups to power stoves and heat homes in new buildings"

• A state energy commission report released in early 2019 concluded that building electrification was “a key strategy” for reducing the state’s climate impacts, one that “offers the most promising path to achieving [greenhouse gas] reduction targets in the least costly manner”.

• “There’s been a lingering perception that burning gas was cleaner than electricity, which might have been true 20 years ago when electricity came from burning coal,” said Pierre Delforge, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council . “When we look at electrification policies, we need to think about what the grid will look like in 10 or 20 years, not what it looked like yesterday.”