By Andrew Christie
San Luis Obispo is to be commended for drafting an ordinance to encourage the decarbonization of new buildings.
City staff has done a good job of covering the benefits in cost savings, healthier air, public safety, and climate, but the Council is under pressure not to pass the ordinance authorizing a "reach code" incentivizing construction of all-electric buildings. (Guess who doesn’t like the idea of buildings with no gas lines?)
The pushback never mentions that the energy used to power and heat buildings is the largest source of climate pollution in the world. The arguments against electrification are dedicated to the proposition that we should all go on living with deadly leaks and explosions and a major source of toxic indoor air because that electricity thing will never work. These arguments are in stark contrast to reality, which is backed up by facts.
For the record, those arguments go something like this:
1) Even if all new development eliminates gas heating and chooses to go all-electric, gas will still be used to generate electricity. Aside from the obvious point that less of a problem is better than more of a problem, California now gets about one third of its energy from renewables, is on track for getting a majority of its energy from renewable sources, and is ahead of the state goal for 2030. Moreover, the City of San Luis Obispo has committed to getting its energy from Monterey Bay Community Power as of January 1, 2020, meaning SLO will shortly be getting its energy from a much cleaner source, so the buildings-will-still-get-gas-generated-electricity argument is about to become moot.
2) Ramping up clean renewable energy presents an insurmountable barrier to grid reliability. This issue is being addressed worldwide, and is primarily a matter of reworking business models and updating policy and regulatory frameworks. The development of software and maps of capacity factors for different renewables at monthly, seasonal and annual scale; predictive models for load patterns; and grid enhancements for reliable and secure integration of different renewable distributed energy resources and energy storage for improved renewable penetration are well under way. This is why the World Bank concluded four years ago that it is now possible to “integrate unprecedented shares of variable renewable energy into grids without compromising adequacy, reliability or affordability.”
3) The impacts of building electrification have not been evaluated in terms of its cost impact and are likely to increase the cost of housing; neither the efficacy nor the energy consumption impacts of the proposal has been evaluated. This comment, flacked by the Republican Party of SLO County, is a collage of false statements. Numerous studies by state regulatory agencies, utilities, and nonpartisan groups have shown that all-electric new construction is faster to build, more affordable for both developers and users, better for public health, and safer for the climate. This ordinance is a timely and critical response to the threat of climate change, California's housing crisis, and public health concerns.
4) Hey, how about sneaking renewable natural gas into the reach code? Renewable gas accounts for less than 1% of current use, potential future supply from sustainable sources is limited, and it’s much more expensive than fossil fuel gas. Hence it is unlikely ever to replace a large share of fossil gas use. And natural gas from any source presents the same concerns for indoor air quality and safety and is more than 90% methane. Leaks at any point contribute significantly to climate change. The inclusion of renewable natural gas would take the City in the opposite direction of where it wants to go, especially in reaching its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035.
5) There goes radical SLO, trying to “promote its extreme environmental credential at the expense of residents and taxpayers.” Carlsbad, Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Jose, Santa Monica and San Francisco have already implemented building codes and taken other measures to create healthier homes and buildings. More than 50 local jurisdictions are considering building codes and ordinances designed to facilitate the transition off gas appliances to all-electric clean energy homes and buildings. These communities are supported by health, business, labor and environmental organizations.
P.S: SoCalGas has proposed rate increases that will raise the price of gas 45 percent over the next three years. (Give yourself a gold star if you guessed correctly who doesn’t like the idea of buildings with no gas lines and is leading the charge against this ordinance.)
Come to SLO City Hall @ 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 3 to let the Council know that you know that all-electric buildings have been proven to save money, and building electrification is the fastest, safest and most cost-effective way to cut pollution from buildings and deliver cleaner air for California.
If you can't make the meeting, send a message of support ASAP to emailcouncil@slocity.org.