B4
THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, dEcEmbER 16, 2021
Natural gas for homes, businesses in crosshairs
Policymakers look
to phase it out
By TOM BANSE
Northwest News Network
Fossil fuel use in build-
ings looks to be the next
frontier for climate activists
at the state and local level.
There’s a convergence of
activity in the Pacific North-
west aimed at phasing out
natural gas furnaces and
water heaters. Cities from
Eugene to Bellingham have
teed up bans on natural gas
in new commercial build-
ings. But natural gas has its
defenders, too, who have
beaten back proposed phase
outs before.
Burning fossil fuels in
homes and businesses is
the second biggest source
of global warming pollu-
tion in the Northwest, after
the transportation sector.
That prompted Washington
Gov. Jay Inslee to propose
an array of new measures on
Monday to transition away
from natural gas for heating
and hot water.
“Climate change is mov-
ing faster, and therefore
we must move faster,” Ins-
lee said at a media event
in Olympia. “We have to
up our game in the state of
Washington against this hor-
rendous threat.”
Inslee said to head off
future climate-driven disas-
ters society needs to “decar-
bonize the built environ-
ment” — meaning homes,
apartment buildings, offices
and commercial spaces.
“We know one thing,
when you’re in a hole, stop
digging,” Inslee said. “We
need to decrease our use of
fossil fuels in our buildings.
It is clear.”
Inslee and Democratic
allies in the state Legisla-
ture laid out a package of
measures whose end goal is
to require all-electric appli-
ances for space and water
heating. The statewide
phase out of natural gas
energy would apply to all
PxHere
New natural gas hookups to commercial buildings and homes are in the crosshairs of policymakers intent on reducing a
growing source of carbon emissions.
new construction beginning
in 2034.
As proposed, the build-
ing electrification require-
ments do not extend to exist-
ing homes and buildings.
The governor said he would
like to see utilities expand
incentives to entice property
owners to switch from fossil
fuel heating to cleaner elec-
tric heating.
The Washington Legisla-
ture reconvenes in January
to consider this and other
climate actions Inslee pro-
posed. In reaction to Ins-
lee’s plans, Republicans in
the state House said ban-
ning gas appliances is a mis-
directed response to climate
concerns.
“The governor’s pro-
posal to decarbonize build-
ings, to get rid of the natu-
ral gas industry and retrain
workers whose jobs would
be eliminated from his pol-
icies would do nothing to
reduce deadly, destructive
wildfires and the smoke they
emit,” Republican state Rep.
Mary Dye said in a prepared
statement that keyed off Ins-
lee’s opening litany of natu-
ral disasters exacerbated by
climate change.
Some Northwest cities
are preparing to move much
faster than their state gov-
ernments. The Eugene City
Council is out front in Ore-
gon, having taken an initial
vote last month to require
all new construction be elec-
tric-only beginning in 2023.
Seattle moved first in
Washington earlier this year,
followed by the suburb of
Shoreline and now Bell-
ingham. Under Washington
state law, cities only have
the authority the ban natu-
ral gas heating systems in
commercial buildings and
apartment blocks. The state
building code council is sep-
arately working on single
family homes and duplexes.
“It really is helpful when
we see local governments
that are ready to take a
first step because that sig-
nals there is interest and
excitement,”
Democratic
state Rep. Alex Ramel said.
“When we see one commu-
nity do it, and then another
community do it and another,
we can see dominoes falling
and coming towards us. At
the state level, that’s some-
thing that gives us confi-
dence to move forward and
tell our colleagues this is the
right idea.”
However, the home con-
struction industry and labor
unions in the construc-
tion and utility sectors are
uneasy — if not outright
pushing back.
“Natural gas is an afford-
able way to heat a home,”
said Jan Himebaugh, gov-
ernment affairs director
for the Building Industry
Association of Washington.
“When you remove that, you
further increase the price of
living in a home because
you’re going to all-electrical
or whatever it is.”
Himebaugh
predicted
tougher,
climate-friendly
energy codes will raise
home sales prices even more
into the unaffordable range.
She also raised a separate
issue, especially prominent
east of the Cascades, of peo-
ple wanting a natural gas
hookup to stay warm during
power outages.
“There are many places
across the state that have
frigid temperatures in the
winter,” Himebaugh said.
“Removing their ability to
have a consistent source of
heat if the electric grid goes
out should be really con-
cerning to those people and
our elected leadership.”
Himebaugh said no one
wants the government tell-
ing them what countertops
to put in their kitchen. Like-
wise, she argued the govern-
ment should let people make
their own choices about gas
or electric appliances.
In Bellingham, City
Councilor Michael Lilliqu-
ist countered that residents
are demanding building
electrification as a climate
change response.
“When local government
in conversation with the
people we represent decides
we need to take strong action
on climate change, that’s not
the government telling the
people. That’s the govern-
ment following the will of
the people,” Lilliquist said.
Lilliquist is pushing an
ordinance that would ban
natural gas furnaces and gas
water heating in new com-
mercial construction and
large apartment buildings
beginning later next year.
It received a public hearing
Monday night.
That Bellingham policy
and the others under con-
sideration around the North-
west do not extend to ban-
ning cooking with natural
gas or using gas fireplaces.
On a practical level though,
it’s probably uneconomical
to install new gas lines just
for a smattering of stoves
and fireplaces.
The movement to restrict
or ban new natural gas
hookups started in Berke-
ley, California, in 2019.
Since then, around 50 more
climate-conscious
Cali-
fornia cities and counties
have passed laws or codes
to require new buildings to
be all-electric, according to
a tally maintained by the
Sierra Club.
On the other hand, over
the last couple years, the
legislatures of Arizona,
Utah, Wyoming and at least
ten other states have passed
legislation to ban local cities
and counties from restrict-
ing natural gas service. In
other words, they wanted to
ban the bans.
This past summer in
Washington’s state’s second
largest city, Spokane, home
builders associations from
the area financed a success-
ful signature drive to qual-
ify a related ballot measure.
It would have asked voters
to preemptively block the
city from restricting natural
gas hookups. The city coun-
cil president said the council
had no intention to take such
a step, but nevertheless the
proponents said they wanted
to stop the spread of what
they called “Seattle-style”
bans on natural gas.
But in late summer, a
county judge struck the
measure, called the Spokane
Cleaner Energy Protection
Act, off the November bal-
lot because she ruled it went
beyond the bounds of what a
local initiative can do.
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