BERKELEY — Keeping its reputation of leading the country in environmental policies, Berkeley is banning natural gas in new buildings starting next year, becoming the first city in the country to do so.
The move unanimously approved by the City Council on Tuesday comes as part of Berkeley’s move to become greener and do its part to fight climate change. The city had adopted a lofty plan in 2009 to cut down its greenhouse gas emissions to 33 percent of what they were in 2000 by 2020, but the city has only managed to reduce emissions by 15 percent, said Councilwoman Kate Harrison, who proposed the ordinance.
Natural gas appliances account for 27 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, Harrison said.
“We often talk about climate change as this scary terrible thing, and it is, but at the end of the day when we tackle this challenge, we’re going to have cleaner, healthier, more efficient, safer, cheaper homes and places of business,” Harrison said at the meeting.
Sierra Club campaigner Rachel Golden called Tuesday’s council vote a historic moment in the state, adding that more than 50 other cities in California are also looking to phase out natural gas infrastructure. According to the Building Decarbonization Coalition, San Jose, San Francisco and dozens of other cities are considering similar legislation to accelerate zero-emission buildings.
“Berkeley has a long history of leading the world in climate, environment and social justice,” Golden said. “This is one of those moments where we are going to show our leadership and inspire other cities in California and states across the country that we could phase out gas, and do so economically, with attention to environmental justice and in a way that’s going to support our communities to be safer and healthier.”
Eliminating natural gas could have other benefits. A 2018 study by the University of Queensland that analyzed asthma cases among children younger than 14 in 2011 blamed 12 percent of childhood asthma on gas stoves used for cooking.
Harrison said the ordinance also will help prevent deadly home fires that start from an open flame and are fueled by gas lines, and it would make homes safer in case of a major earthquake. She cited a 2017 study by the 2017 U.S. Geological Survey that found that a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on the Hayward fault line with the epicenter in Oakland could result in 450 large fires, and the destruction of thousands of homes, and that ruptured gas lines would be a “key fire risk factor.”
The devastating 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake resulted in ruptured gas mains that caused huge fires.
Pacific Gas and Electric spokesman Darin Cline, at the meeting, spoke in favor of the ordinance, saying the company is in favor of all-electric construction.
“We welcome the opportunity to avoid investments in new gas assets that might later prove underutilized as the local governments and the state work together to realize our longterm decarbonization objectives,” he said.
Exemptions to the rule include new units built in the basements or attics of existing houses, which will be allowed to use whatever fuel source already is used in the home, and in construction that will “serve the public interest” as determined by the City Council or the zoning adjustments board.
The ordinance would apply to restaurants as well as homes, but Harrison assured those at Tuesday’s meeting that the city could “maintain its rich culinary culture” through the use of electric induction cooktops and ranges. She demonstrated this by having one of her staffers melt a chocolate bar in a pot over a hotplate during the meeting. The staffer put a piece of paper in between the hotplate and the pot to show how that it wouldn’t catch on fire, and handed out chocolate-covered strawberries in a demonstration that tasty food does not require a gas stove.
Cline said PG&E owns a 9,000-square-foot commercial kitchen in San Ramon that has all induction appliances, which company officials show developers and restaurateurs as proof that it can be done. A 2010 New York Times article said chefs are flocking to induction cooktops and ranges for their power and precision, saying they may become “the iPad of the kitchen.”
Some setbacks identified in the article are that they are generally twice as expensive as gas appliances and that learning how to control the powerful heat can be tough to figure out.
The council also voted to earmark $273,341 during the upcoming November budget process to hire a staffer for a two-year position in the city’s Planning and Development Department to implement the ordinance.
