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In today’s @latimes: My survey of all 15 Los Angeles Ciy Council members and Mayor Eric Garcetti, asking them if they’d support a ban on gas in new housing to fight climate change: https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-02-04/bay-area-cities-have-banned-gas-to-fight-climate-change-but-not-los-angeles-boiling-point 1/
42 California cities now require or encourage electric heating & cooking as a means of reducing emissions, including Oakland, San Francisco & San Jose. But LA has done nothing, despite Garcetti pledging to be a leader on this, as I wrote in 2019: https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-garcetti-green-new-deal-los-angeles-20190429-story.html 2/
All-elctric building requirements have ignited a fierce battle between climate activists, homebuilders and the natural gas industry. A key battleground is California’s statewide building code, which is currently being updated: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-12-07/should-california-ban-gas-in-new-homes-a-climate-battle-heats-up 3/
The pushback from the gas industry, including utility workers, has been intense. In San Luis Obispo, the head of a union of Southern California Gas employees threatened to hold a huge protest “potentially adding to this pandemic” to block a gas ban: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-05-06/socalgas-union-leader-protest-threat-no-social-distancing 4/
The battle is spreading outside California, as it usually does. With gas industry prompting, four state legislatures have passed bills prohibiting local governments from bannning gas, and similar laws have been proposed in 10 other states: https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063724065 5/
The gas industry makes the case that gas bans harm low-income people of color by raising energy prices. It’s an argument that largely ignores the disproportionate impacts of climate change on Black, Latino & Indigenous communities, as I unpacked here: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-11-23/clean-energy-fossil-fuels-racial-justice 6/
At the same time, environmental justice activists say gas bans must take equity into account. As @MarthaDinaPSRLA asks, “If we electrify everything, how are we going to ensure for low-income communities that they aren’t paying more in energy costs?” https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-02-04/bay-area-cities-have-banned-gas-to-fight-climate-change-but-not-los-angeles-boiling-point 7/
Overall, four L.A. City Council members told me they’d support a gas ban. Six were noncommittal, and five had nothing to say. Read my story to find out where they stand, and what Mayor Garcetti’s office says it’s doing: https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-02-04/bay-area-cities-have-banned-gas-to-fight-climate-change-but-not-los-angeles-boiling-point 8/
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