California’s Bay Area regulators voted to ban gas furnaces and water heaters after 2027, three years before the California state ban.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District includes “Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southwestern Solano and southern Sonoma counties.”
If your gas furnace or water heater gives out after 2027, you’re screwed. You have to buy an electric model:
Bay Area regulators voted Wednesday to adopt rules to phase out the sale and installation of natural-gas furnaces and water heaters over the next eight years, one of the most ambitious plans in the country to replace gas appliances with electric alternatives.
The rules, approved by the Bay Area Air District Management Quality District, are meant to reduce air pollution from some of the worst home appliance offenders. The main pollutants targeted are nitrogen oxides (NOx), which can cause acid rain and smog as well as increase risk for asthma and other respiratory diseases.
People will be able to repair their gas appliances if they break – but the rules take effect when existing gas-powered furnaces or water heaters no longer work and need to be replaced. New construction will also be required to have zero-NOx – effectively, electric – furnaces and water heaters.
Dr. Philip Fine, executive officer of the Air District, boasted: “The 1.8 million water heaters and furnaces in the bay area significantly impact our air quality, resulting in dozens of early deaths and a wide range of health impacts, particularly in communities of color. this groundbreaking regulation will phase out the most polluting appliances in homes and businesses to protect Bay Area residents from the harmful air pollution they cause.”
These people don’t think, do they?
You get electricity by burning coal, which is dirty. It always comes down the color of someone’s skin, thinking those people need to have their hand held all the time.
How about the cost? the only cost that matters to the left don’t matter to people who want to put food on their table. The regulators insist it’s all worth it because the change should “save residents an estimated $890 million per year in health costs due to air pollution exposure.”
Okay, how about the actual cost? The appliances cost a fortune:
But the strict regulations have sparked pushback from the industry and Bay Area residents, who note they could sharply drive up housing costs in the region — already among the highest in the U.S. — and limit consumers’ choices when their gas-powered appliances break or need replacement.
Switching to “zero-NOx,” or electric appliances, will cost residents thousands of dollars. According to the Air Quality Management District’s estimates, switching from a gas-powered furnace to a zero-NOx heater will cost consumers an average of $8,030. They estimate it will be $2,820 to upgrade to zero-NOx water heaters.
A 2022 study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that mid-range electric heat pumps cost nearly $3,000 more than gas furnaces.
And installation of the appliances could also be expensive, especially if the new appliances require homes to upgrade to electrical panels.
That could run an additional $2,630 for zero-NOx space heaters and $960 for zero-NOx water heaters, the regulators said.
The area hasn’t banned gas stoves…yet. The area hasn’t banned gas-powered dryers…yet. The ban does not apply to “water heaters larger than 2 million BTU/hr, appliances that use propane or other non-natural gas fuels and mobile home furnaces.”
The Bay Area is forcing power grids to handle more than they can probably handle. When the electricity goes out, the residents will have to deal with no power but also no heat or hot water:
“In order to comply with the proposed regulations, we would have to upgrade our electrical system,” Bay Area resident Linda Tolosano wrote to the district. “How do you expect seniors on a fixed income to comply?”
Homebuilder groups wrote with concerns their industry wasn’t ready to do mass installations. Others were concerned that PG&E didn’t have the capacity to quickly upgrade electric service home-by-home — a necessary service for those considerably expanding their electrical use — and noted that the power can go out amid wildfires and storms.
“No hot water in addition to no power would make a house uninhabitable during a blackout,” Bay Area resident Colin Daly wrote in a Jan. 18 letter to the air district, noting he had no electricity for nearly a week in early January storms. “Please leave this decision up to individuals.”
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Comments
If you are a property owner in enemy country, if you are not planning on fleeing it might make sense to have a new gas water heater stashed that can be installed after they are banned.
Otherwise, if you are fleeing, sit back in your new home with popcorn and watch the mayhem as the power fails.
Subotai Bahadur
When all of the energy supply is in one basket,,, tossing the wrench in will so much easier. Did I forget to mention control of the population…. cold showers and cold meals will be an incentive to conform. By the way… what is more energy efficient… oh… I can’t ask that.
Sadly it won’t require tossing a wrench. Just refusing to grant the permits to turn the wrenches to create and sustain reliable/affordable electricity to support the increased demand.
alaskabob in reply to Subotai Bahadur. | March 17, 2023 at 7:58 pm
When all of the energy supply is in one basket,,,
concur – Really stupid to put all your eggs in one basket. When the basket fails, there is no second basket.
would be okay to put all the eggs in one basket – if, and only if, if it was a better basket!
good idea – alternatively, drive to Reno to buy one when you need it.
Better know how to sweat a joint. Even if using pex, you still need to have sweat the joint for the piece that joins the copper line with the pex line. Good luck finding a plumber that will install it. Then ban includes “installation” which bars a licensed plumber from installing the gas HW heater.
Good luck trying to sell the house without the upgraded electric service panel.
“ Good luck trying to sell the house without the upgraded electric service panel.”
The unions own every politician in the Bay Area and the IBEW is a nasty bunch.
I have to wonder if they are at least partially in back of this push.
I more than expect that an underground tradecrafts economy will develop. It won’t be cheap, and it will have to be in cash, or gold, but it will develop.
Subotai Bahadur
“will”
Hang out at the counter of the dive diner I frequent ’round here.
The vile Dumb-o-crats are obnoxious Regressives. Calling these idiots “Liberals,” “Progressives,” or any of their other self-styled, self-congratulatory and inapposite monikers is an affront to truth and reality.
The Dumbs are happy to take the U.S. back to the Stone Age in order to fulfill their messianic and chimeric “green” diktats/fantasies. And the road that leads there will predictably be paved with incalculable human suffering, deprivation, misery and death. But, the Party apparatchiks will be safely ensconced in the ivory tower mansions, far removed from the peasants of the proletariat.
Under the electrical demand created by EV’s and this new rule, how long will it be before California’s electrical grid is under permanent “rolling blackout” status, akin to that found in third-world countries?
But California is the best third world “nation-state” (tip of hat to Newsom) near the US.
They are not liberals by any stretch. Progressives have never been liberal, but they profit from the misnomer that they are.
The science is what the Leftists say it is
NIMBY environmentalism.
IF this plays out, it’ll be an absolute disaster.
First, most residences don’t have enough electrical power to add a large appliance like an electric water heater – meaning, several thousand dollars per residence to upgrade their electricity service.
Second: there isn’t enough electricity to power all these new water heaters!
This is planned chaos. I say it again: our country is toast. It’s over. The ONLY hope we have left for freedom and our way of life is secession.
We live in one of these counties. We have a 70 year old drafty house with a 90 amp service which suits us fine when paired with natural gas for hot water and household heat. We will almost certainly have to upgrade to a 200 amp service to run these appliances. Hopefully the voters feel some pain for this from their lifetime of cruddy choices that lead to agencies ruling by fiat.
I live in the SF Bay Area as well. The problem isn’t just the thousands it will cost you to add new electric service to your house. In some cities … SF is one … the time for PG&E to increase service from 100A to 200A for a house is running as long as 13 months. In other places … like Fremont … sometimes the PG&E feeder lines can’t support 200A service because the service to the neighborhood wasn’t designed for it. Everything gets worse when the utilities are underground. All of this and more is quoted in SFGate reader comments.
Just like everything else here … this will be a cluster …
For those that like to bitch that CA residents deserve this because they didn’t vote for better candidates … muzzle it … voters can only vote for who’s on the ballot … and all candidates here suck … there are no good choices.
I also own a home in the SF bay area . Not only will I have to upgrade my electrical service, but I will also have to rewire my house because panels are no longer allowed in the house by code and then to top it off, I will have to replumb my house because electrical water heaters cannot be installed in hall closets. Not a happy camper and I did not vote for these clowns.
I wonder how that will affect buildings with Generac gas powered emergency generators? This might be a big sales opportunity for them.
I have been buying Generac stock in the last couple of months for exactly this reason. People will need generators for their homes and those with electric cars will need them to fuel their cars.
Most whole house Generacs run on natural gas. These will almost certainly be part of the ban.
Yes, I know. I’m betting on the period between now and 2027. I also assume that as California, New York and others near their deadlines and realize that their electrical grids will become unstable, they will extend deadlines or change the law altogether. In other words, I’m betting on rational demand and panic.
Propane is more efficient, but that undoubtedly will also be banned.
They also sell a solar powered battery storage backup. That sounds like a more practical solution under the circumstances. I don’t know offhand how much power it can supply, though.
Nationally, 40% of electricity generated in the US by utilities is by natural gas. Does Xiden want to convert those plants to coal, or oil?
No. The boilers will be heated electrically. The generators to make the electricity will come from perpetual motion machines; the most favored of which is the Buttered Tosst Cat Array.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttered_cat_paradox
Acid rain? That hasn’t been a thing in decades anywhere in the US after the coal plants were cleaned up. Smog? Been in LA lately? Even they don’t have a smog problem anymore, and their geography is ideal for creating it.
The problem is that the EPA some time back actually accomplished their initial mission, which was to clean auto exhaust emissions and also those of other big producers of bad air. That left a huge federal bureaucracy with time on its hands. The mission transitioned from the original mission to the all-important one of preserving the bureaucracy and the jobs therein. Now they run around seeking dragons to slay.
In RI, we have Rep. Kislak who wants to ban gas powered lawn equipment by 2028. In solidarity with the rest of the green energy nutsacks, she cites the success of, you guessed it, California.
Hint, hint. No one in California is complying. Well, maybe those in San Fran selling their possession to pony up the $600K per person for Reparations in a state that never had slavery.
The CA gas powered lawn equipment ban doesn’t go into effect until 2024 … would be premature to comply at this time.
SF suggested reparations now stands at $5 million … plus a s*** load of other demands in addition.
I really have begun to wonder if there isn’t something in the water .
More likely lack of water. Dehydration causes, among other things, foggy thinking.
.
Power for me but not for thee.
Let’s see them define kilowatt. Doesn’t even exist. Magic!
Can you say “China is bringing 30 new coal-fired power plants online every year for the foreseeable future?” I didn’t think so
Investment in appliance stores, plumbing supply, equipment sales located in NV near the CA line could be a thing. New strip malls containing all three, with an ammunition outlet tossed in. “Midnight Plumbing” looks like a winning idea.
California will likely convert those agricultural inspection stations into “open the U-Haul! Schnell! SCHNELL!!!” with guns aimed at everyone in the vehicle.
“The 1.8 million water heaters and furnaces in the bay area significantly impact our air quality, resulting in dozens of early deaths and a wide range of health impacts, 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙧”.
I was waiting for that line. Wasn’t disapponted.
When I think of community, I think of a group of people who work to help each other out. For the community of color inquestion here (hint, not the Asians), the behavior is one where they continuously screw each other over relentlesly. My community is one which benefits one another and thus ourselves in the process.
So in Portland, we have this neighborhood called “Felony Flats” which is on a rise just adjacent to a large Precision Castparts facility. The city DEQ has been harrassing PC for a decade now claiming that plant emissions are the cause of poor health in the FF neighborhood. As a casual observer, I am thinking that the over abundance of sucessful dive bars and convenience stores, and rampant meth use, is more likely the cause of poor health among the residents. Such is also, I believe, the reason that communities of color have poor health outcomes. It has nothing to do with the immediate environment, but in the health practices of said community. That does not stop the politicos from claiming otherwise, and when someone like myself points out the likely causes, they immediately default to stating that the reason that my community doesn’t suffer a similar outcome is due to white supremacy, which apparently is code for “acting like an adult.”
I am not going to do the math, but if one were to examine the cost of this proposed legislation based on lives saved, I am guessing that it is around $5M/life. Why does that number ring a bell?
I guess “It’s not for the children” is being replaced with “It’s for the
colouredpeople of color”.Remove “not”…
The move to Inflexible Energy continues apace.
“Nobody’s coming for your gas stove.”
Oh, you mean the same way “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” or more like “Nobody’s coming for your guns?”
Just askin for approx 330,000,000 people who have to live under your schemes, and probably like their gas stoves. (Like their doctors: they picked them, after all.)