The First Natural Gas Ban in the U.S. Just Got Shot Down

[Jose Garcia]

Source: Gizmodo

When the city of Berkeley, California passed the country’s first ban on the use of natural gas in new buildings in the summer of 2019, environmental advocates celebrated the move as an important precedent for other cities to follow. And follow they did: There are now at least 99 similar ordinances in place across the country, the vast majority of which require appliances like stoves and heaters to be electric. But on Monday, a federal appeals court threw many of those bans into question.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that Berkeley’s ban is preempted by a federal law, and is therefore illegal. The decision marks a victory for the California Restaurant Association, the organization that sued the city shortly after it passed the ordinance banning the use of natural gas in new construction, claiming that such a measure would damage the restaurant industry.

“Many restaurants will be faced with the inability to make many of their products which require the use of specialized gas appliances to prepare, including for example flame-seared meats, charred vegetables, or the use of intense heat from a flame under a wok,” the lawsuit read.

But advocates argue that those concerns are dwarfed by a growing body of research that has found natural gas use in buildings not only releases huge quantities of greenhouse gasses, but also threatens people’s health. Studies have found that gas stoves are responsible for approximately 13 percent of childhood asthma cases in the U.S.; they also leak the potent greenhouse gas methane and the cancer-causing chemical benzene even when they’re turned off.

Read more: https://gizmodo.com/the-first-natural-gas-ban-in-the-u-s-just-got-shot-dow-1850352032

[Meadowoak]

1. I switched to induction cooking, electric heat pump, electric dryer and water heater.

Wouldn't go back to gas.

[Warpy]

6. My heat is by electric heat pump

Everything else is electric. I'm screwn if the power goes out for more than a few days in winter, but I don't want to go back, either, although I do miss a gas cooktop for stir frying. That's all I miss it for.

[Meadowoak]

7. I have an LP gas heater for power outages, didn't need it at all last winter.

[reymega life]

2. good because they work in power outages

[Old Crank]

12. My gas heater doesn't work in a power outage.

It won't run without the fan. My gas stove doesn't light unless I find some matches without electricity. Due to fire codes restaurants that are required to have exhaust hoods have interlick to keep the gas off unless the hood is running.

[truthisfreedom]

3. Restaurants could easily be exempted.

As of 2022 CO2-generating fossil fuels were used to produce 60 percent of all electric power in the US. Switching to electric is great but only if we clean up electric power.

[The Mouth]

4. Hopefully we can get the idiotic phase-out stopped, too.

[swong19104]

5. Strange...

that restaurants aren't advocating for open fire pits or using wood (some still do, I suppose: Il Forniao I think still uses wood for their wood-fired ovens for their pizzas). If the restaurant is making something that specifically requires gas or wood or coal or lasers, that should be in their application and an appropriate location will need to be found.

Otherwise, use what is offered.

[DENVERPOPS]

8. Of course the ban on natural gas, (Methane)

will have greater consequences, like not being able to fart, have landfills, oil wells, refineries, or sewage treatment plants.....

[Flip3]

9. All electric home (condo) here ...

... so yay me I guess.

But I'm in Illinois, so that means really I'm mostly burning coal.

Really we need all around better infrastructure before having outright bans.

[moniss]

10. The fossil fuel industry has been

very busy for many years writing into Federal law protections/exemptions for themselves.