Should California ban gas in new homes? A climate battle heats up

An aerial view of Day Creek Villas, a zero-net-energy senior housing development in Rancho Cucamonga. The question is what the path looks like.” Everett Reid, assistant superintendent, views high-efficiency natural gas boilers at National Community Renaissance’s Day Creek Villas, a zero-net-energy senior housing development in Rancho Cucamonga. Building industry groups told state officials there’s usually no “significant difference” in cost between building an all-electric and a dual-fuel home, although they warned that Central Valley residents “should expect to pay $250 more per year to operate an all-electric home.” Gas ban advocates disagree, offering their own data showing that all-electric homes can be cheaper to build and operate. Those nuances didn’t stop Frank Maisano — a media specialist at the government relations firm Bracewell who works with SoCalGas and other energy industry clients — from saying the UCLA study found that gas bans “disproportionately harm minorities/poor communities.” It’s an increasingly common line of argument from the fossil fuel industry, which has tried to stave off ambitious climate policies by casting itself as an ally of people of color. Even before Berkeley approved the state’s first gas ban, SoCalGas started asking local governments to support “balanced energy solutions” — a key talking point in the utility’s campaign against electrification policies.