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SLO City Council again seeking to ban natural gas appliances

February 3, 2022

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

The city of San Luis Obispo is again considering banning natural gas appliances in new homes and buildings.

In 2019, the SLO City Council voted in favor of enacting a ban on natural gas appliances in new construction. When faced with legal pressure, city officials suspended the plan to phase out the use of natural gas.

Then in 2020, the council adopted the Clean Energy Choice Program, which established new energy efficiency requirements for constructing buildings with natural gas appliances and incentivized building all-electric structures instead.

But, according to a recent city staff report, when given the choice, developers are still opting to construct mixed-fuel buildings, rather than all-electric, about 50 percent of the time. That rate is not high enough for the city to reach its greenhouse gas reductions targets, city staff says.

In turn, city officials are again considering an outright ban on natural gas appliances in new construction. During a city council hearing on the matter on Tuesday, multiple council members voiced support for a natural gas ban.

“We tried to be nice and give people a chance to have choices, hoping that they would choose what really is reality, and apparently that’s not going to work,” Councilwoman Carlyn Christianson said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Tonight’s a simple decision in terms of where we want new housing and new buildings to be, and it’s to me not even really a question. It has to be all electric.”


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They tried to be nice?…Carlyn needs to read the constitution and the Bill of Rights…then she should step down immediately afterwards…govern the people Carlyn do not attempt to rule the people…

What’s next?…cutting gas off to restaurants?….unbelievable….


38

Are they being bribed by pg&e now? Electricity is around 4 times more expensive. Way to look out for your constituents.


30

The last thing they want is affordable energy because getting their dream of so called renewables will be harder if low cost energy is available….so this is why gas is nearly $5 per gal…its a monkey burn until we say uncle….


9

PG&E? Let’s remember the good sheeple of SLO were signed over to the Heidi electric cabal a couple years ago.


10

“We tried to be nice”? WTF does she think she is? San Luis, you’ve got to do better than these petty tyrant clowns you’ve put on city council. What a joke.


109

Be nice if they waited for a replacement source of electricity….


35

Aren’t they supposed to be working FOR US?!? It’s not their job to police the public! Elect new officials asap!


114

I wonder how many of their personal houses and owned rental units are connected to PGE gas lines? If they were serious I think they would disconnect themselves.


93

Yes I know how the ban works. If you really want natural gas, you pay a mitigation fee, more revenue for the city. The CPUC is not going entertain the disallowing of natural gas but they will let you pay more to get it. The City is going to get caught and you will have to pay their fines.


70

What jerks


85

“We tried to be nice and give people a chance to have choices, hoping that they would choose what really is reality, and apparently that’s not going to work,”


Translation: the peasants chose the wrong things, so no more choice. Wow. The mindset one has to have even to think that way.


124

I was thinking the same thing when I read that last paragraph.

Yes we all know that electricity is the cleaner energy to use but are they stopping at stoves or are they going to demand water heaters,the dryer or your house be heated by electricity too?

Talk about a high electricity bill between your water heater,dryer and trying to heat your house.

People already struggle with making rent,buying groceries and paying their bills.


69

Not that I disagree with your premise regarding the increased costs of operating electric appliances, but it is highly debatable as to if natural gas is actually “cleaner” than electricity…this really is true misinformation that some climate activists have perpetrated. Natural gas is much more efficient, and when you consider the totality of the environmental impacts of so called green energy, it really is the next best option (nuclear being the best).


15

Cleaner? How exactly? It doesn’t magically show up at the switch. Let’s see, no hydro, no nuclear. No sun or wind at night. How much storage would be required to power homes and car chargers at night if everyone was all electric? That electricity will largely come from…..natural gas. Is that better or cleaner?


16
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