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New York City becomes largest U.S. city to ban gas heat and stoves in new buildings

Gas will soon be a thing of the past in New York City, thanks to a bill passed on Wednesday by the City Council.

Russia's Gazprom will stop sending natural gas to Finland as of Saturday morning. Source - James Riden , CC SA 2.5.
Russia's Gazprom will stop sending natural gas to Finland as of Saturday morning. Source - James Riden , CC SA 2.5.

Gas will soon be a thing of the past in New York City, thanks to a bill passed on Wednesday by the City Council. The historic bill puts the weight of the largest city in the country behind a growing movement to ban gas and electrify everything.

NYC is not the first city to ban natural gas hookups. In 2019, Berkeley, California, became the first place in the world to do so. The number of cities joining Berkeley has jumped to include several dozen other cities across the U.S.

City legislators voted Wednesday for the measure designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollution. Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign the bill that requires electricity-powered heat and hot water in — with a few exceptions — all new buildings under seven stories by 2024 and all other buildings in 2027, according to EcoWatch.

Ben Furnas, the director of climate and sustainability for the mayor’s office, told the New York Times, “It’s a historic step forward in our efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere.”

A Natural Gas Pipeline Station at Bowling Green State University. Image – Mbrickn, CC SA 4.0.

Getting free of fossil fuels was not easy

It is not a surprise that the utility and fossil fuel lobby began to panic, especially seeing that electrification efforts are picking up around the country.

The American Petroleum Institute lobbied against the bill. And in October, Exxon ran Facebook ads targeting New Yorkers, with posts reading that households “forced to go full electric” could spend “more than $25,600 to replace major appliances. Exxon failed to mention the proposed bill would only apply to new buildings.

According to Gizmodo, In an interesting switch of allegiances, ConEd, a huge supplier of natural gas in New York, has been quietly backing the bill.

The city’s decision to ban natural gas was not “spur-of-the-moment” thinking. Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, wanted to pursue the ban two years ago. What made the bill harder to sell in NYC, where 40 percent of emissions come from buildings, was winter.

Until recently, gas was promoted as the cleanest option for heating, and proponents had to convince lawmakers that new and quickly improving electric technologies could heat and cook as well and at least as cheaply.

There were arguments that hard winters could lead to blackouts. The National Grid, a utility that supplies gas in the city — said the ban’s effect on the climate would be limited until the city stops getting most of its electricity from fossil fuels, and that improved gas equipment should remain an option. 

However, ConEd, along with other proponents of the ban argued that the city’s grid could handle the increase – partly because the grid’s biggest strains come in summer, from air conditioning.

The shift to electric heating actually has the potential to reduce demand in summers, the groups’ analysts argued, because many builders are expected to turn to heat pumps, which are already common in Europe, that both heat and cool spaces and use less energy than air-conditioners.

Bear in mind that not all is good around the country. Dirty fossil fuel interests have been able to work their way into state and city legislatures in other parts of the country to make sure gas stays king.

States including Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arizona, and Oklahoma, have bills that mandate keeping natural gas hookups in buildings, prolonging the switch nationwide to clean energy.

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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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