(Reuters) – San Jose, the 10th most populous U.S. city and political center of Silicon Valley, on Tuesday moved to ban natural gas in most new residential buildings beginning next year.
With a unanimous vote by the 10-member city council and Mayor Sam Liccardo, San Jose became the largest U.S. city so far to seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by favoring appliances that run on renewable electricity sources over those powered by natural gas.
San Jose moves to ban natural gas in new residential buildings
Standby generators run on Natural Gas and they connect to the existing distribution pipelines. If there is something we sorely miss in South Florida is NG distribution because it makes us dependent of only one source of energy for everyday usage and emergencies.
Now, the geniuses of San Jose, trying to be the ultimate Greta fans and Uber Woke have decided that new housing will not have access to an alternative energy source because we need to save the planet and get our power from solar panels and Quixotic windmills. Emergencies and the survival of citzens be damned.
These are the people that, in an emergency, should be the last to leave town in a solar-powered Greyhound bus. If you believe what you push, you should risk your life just like everybody else.
Hat Tip Manny L
Are they actively trying to turn California into a Third World Banana Republic?
It sure seems to be that way.
I think Jimmy Buffett if overdue for updating the lyrics of “Fruitcakes” to include the latest inanities from Commiefornia… 😉
Funny how in my 56 years EVERY year there were articles about califruitsnutz wild fires. Back in the 70s there was even a Rockford Files episode that featured wild fires. But its all natual gas and “carbon” fault
As I expected, a significant chunk of PG&E power comes from natural gas fired power plants, an even bigger chunk comes from nuclear power that that the eco-idiots also want to ban.
Source: https://www.pge.com/en_US/about-pge/environment/what-we-are-doing/clean-energy-solutions/clean-energy-solutions.page
Unfortunately, they won’t make the Silicon Valley corporate giants scrap their existing natural gas back-up generators (yet). You aren’t going to power server farms and the sir conditioning systems needed to keep the computers operating with solar panels and windmills. The DPRCali has made electrical power more expensive and less reliable, now the resources needed for back-up power are being restricted. The workers who have to live in the valley will suffer, but not the high tech corporations. The upside is that the natural gas not sold in San Jose will make gas cheaper and more available for me.
What I find truly ignorant about this move is that using electricity to produce heat is far more inefficient than burning fossil fuels (or any fuels, for that matter).
Yes, I remember a big push in New England to replace once-common electric heat by oil or gas heat.
Then again, for heating in mild climates (like CA) the point may be valid. Heat pumps have efficiency values that depend on the temperature differential. If it’s modest, as is likely there, it may be a reasonable option. Maybe not even then, though, you’d have to run the numbers end to end (generation, transmission, and heat pump). In places like NH or MN, heat pumps are a lousy choice in winter and burning stuff is a far better option.