Building Electrification to Speed Climate Action

Sheridan Tatsuno, co-founder, OneReality.com

February 11, 2020 update

Electrification is gaining momentum as a practical and rapid way to reduce smog and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Berkeley, California announced a ban on natural gas in all new buildings. Palo Alto aims to reduce GHG emissions by 80% in 2030. Eleven U.S. cities have announced all-electric plans, with more towns and cities joining every week. Today, Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti committed all new or substantially rehabilitated buildings owned by the city to be 100% carbon-free and use less carbon-intensive building materials in the process. https://www.nrdc.org/experts/maria-stamas/angeles-city-owned-buildings-go-100-carbon-free

At Palo Alto's first Bay Area Home Electrification event, Bruce Niles of the Rocky Mountain Institute, who wrote a NY Times article about the hazards of natural gas, found that cities are major GHG emitters because many buildings use natural gas, which has been incorrectly assumed to be the best way to reduce GHG when, in fact, California homes burn more gas than natural gas power plants. Half of gas is used to heat water, which could be supplied by solar and heat pumps. Moreover, gas causes asthma and other illnesses, which are overlooked. Gas cooking is especially harmful to children, who are 42% more likely to get asthma than with all-electric homes. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/climate-change-gas-electricity.html

Despite its reputation for clean technologies, California is a heavier user of natural gas than East Coast cities, such as Atlanta, which are more all-electric and commonly use induction cooking. Gas supplies half of all California home heating. Why is that? In the early 1990s, when electric bills skyrocketed, utilities switched to gas, which became the default energy. Between 2013 and 2017, California added 252,000 new gas customers, the #1 state for new users and #2 in overall gas consumption. In 2017, California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio were major gas users, which now must reduce their gas reliance and go all-electric.

One misconception about gas is that the oil/gas industry has branded natural gas as "clean" since it reduced carbon by half over coal, which is true, but they never mention the extensive methane leaks at oil/gas fields, wellheads, long pipelines, and underground city pipes and home and office pipes. A major problem is gas leakage within walls, which are called "bubbles of methane." Natural gas is 92% to 98% methane, which is 84 times more potent than CO2 in the short run, so it has enormous climate impact. Today, gas is the #2 biggest GHG source so cities are aiming to reduce it through banning natural gas and replacing it with electrification.

Fortunately, cities can solve the natural gas problem without direction or help from Washington D.C. California has 12 million buildings burning gas so its cities can introduce gas bans and electrification programs. PG&E is working with cities to go all-electric. A major benefit is that electric induction range heating is faster and more precise than gas. 

California must move quickly since its buildings emit 107 tons of GHGs every day, compared to 118 tons for light-duty vehicles and 18 tons for power plants. Moreover, gas causes fires after earthquakes, such as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake where fires caused by gas pipeline ruptures destroyed the City. After earthquakes, it takes only days to reinstate electricity compared to 6 months to rebuild gas pipelines. With bigger wildfires, the probability of gas explosions will increase exponentially.

California cities are leading by example and planning new building rebates and multi-family rebates for conversion from gas. Besides Berkeley, PG&E (#5 gas seller in the nation) and nine counties have joined in going all-electric. By 2020, 40% of California cities plan to go all-electric, including San Jose, the 10th largest U.S. city. The benefits of going all-electric are enormous: improved health and safety.

However, housing affordability will be a big challenge. Switching from gas to all-electric costs $6,000 to $15,000 per home, but every $1,000 increase in home prices prevents 9,897 California families from affording homes, according to a 2019 National American Home Builders study. Bruce Niles advises the state and cities to implement all-electric strategies in an orderly way or homeowners will leave the grid, leaving problems with the poor. City policymakers, citizens and homeowners need to study how to "unwind" the natural gas system equitably for poor communities, especially those in areas with bad air quality. Currently, utilities provide incentives for gas, so all-electric incentives need to be realigned for new homes and retrofits. The benefits are significant; a Rocky Mountain Institute study of Oakland shows that all-electric would be 10% cheaper or more than gas costs over 10 years.

Finally, utilities quote BTU (British Thermal Units) gas prices cheaper than BTU electric prices, but electric stoves are three times more efficient. Induction heating and heat pumps are also considered premium products, so contractors don't know if they are priced higher than gas stoves, unlike in the UK.

California cities are beginning to ban gas and go all-electric, but need to move much faster to meet California's GHG goals for 2030 without harming poor households and communities. Climate justice, not just climate action, is the key challenge for all cities and towns in the coming years.

For more information, see:

Rocky Mountain Institute: www.rmi.org

Silicon Valley Clean Energy: www.SVCleanEnergy.org

Fossil Free Buildings: www.fossilfreebuildings.org

Peninsula Clean Energy: www.PeninsulaCleanEnergy.com

City of Palo Alto Utilities: www.cityofpaloalto.org/efficiencygenie

Acterra: www.acterra.org