4 ms·

Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes

• Bostonian 7y ago
  Modern progressives advocate sexual freedom but try to control many other aspects of life.
  • smt88 7y ago
    Sexual freedom between informed, consenting adults hurts no one. Burning (or, worse, accidentally releasing) natural gas contributes to climate change, which may lead to the extinction of all human life. It doesn't seem complicated to me. No one is harmed by the loss of using natural gas.
• vikramkr 7y ago
  What's the alternative to gas heating during the winter? Oil is clearly worse, is electric heating any good efficiency wise?
  • throwaway3627 7y ago
    Nope, not in Berkeley. Electricity: grid or self-renewables. Electrical heating is extremely efficient, but currently costs more than NG. Clearly, the move is away from FF because unsequestered carbon fuels/energy isn't good for climate change. It'd be nice if LNG power plants burned their fuels and returned CO2 underground into BE/CCS (if net energy possible). Other areas of energy consumption and fuel/petrochem need to follow suit soonish to be consistent per the climate change emergency.
• m463 7y ago
  I wonder how this feeds into energy pricing. PG&E rates are based on some fictitious "average" household, which uses electricity and gas. Then you pay more if you use more than this household did. ($0.22/$0.27/$0.48 per kwh, and $1.28/$1.88 per therm gas) The thing is, if your household only has electricity for heating which is not as cost effective as gas, you may end up in the $0.48/kwh tier for electicity.