Part 1. Building Electrification Starts in 2023
Livermore’s consequential 2022 Climate Action Plan (CAP) maps out planned actions to mitigate and adapt to its authors’ expectations of climate change. The city is not strictly acting on its own, but is essentially mandated to do so because of California legislation and executive orders. We intend to cover CAP’s effects on Livermore citizens and infrastructure in a series of short articles, starting with the required electrification of buildings.
Electrification is a word that is used about 100 times in the 2022 CAP. In effect, it means that local fossil fuel sources of power or heat will be replaced with electrical ones. In the beginning of this process, the fuel used where electricity is generated may be a fossil fuel such as oil, gas, or coal, or a renewable such as solar, wind, or hydro. California’s legislation and executive orders mandate replacing all fossil fuels used in electricity generation with renewables by 2045. Governor Brown’s executive order in 2018 further requires that California be net carbon neutral by 2045.
Livermore is addressing building electrification immediately — starting this year, 2023, all new buildings must be built for electric power and heat only. This obviously means that Livermore businesses and citizens occupying new buildings will be unable to use gas furnaces, gas stoves, gas clothes dryers, and gas fireplaces in new homes, apartment complexes, offices, warehouses, etc. The CAP mentions allowing some opt-outs for the electrification requirement on a case-by-case basis, but doesn’t suggest how that decision will be made.
Building electrification requirements are facing a current block in court, as the Ninth Circuit of Appeals has ruled in favor of the California Restaurant Association in an April ruling against the City of Berkeley. The Court ruled that Berkeley’s mandate against gas piping in buildings violated a 1975 Federal law that gives only Congress the right to ban appliances.
For existing buildings, Livermore plans to offer incentives in order to retrofit 12% to electric power and heat only, starting in 2026 and completed by 2030.
References:
City of Livermore 2022 Climate Action Plan, adopted November 28, 2022, https://livermoreclimateaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022-CAP-Final.pdf
California Restaurant Association vs. City of Berkeley, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 21-16278, April 17, 2023, https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2023/04/17/21-16278.pdf
Federal Court Blocks California City’s Gas Stove Ban, Turning Up the Heat on Democrats, The Washington Free Beacon, https://freebeacon.com/california/federal-court-blocks-california-citys-gas-stove-ban-turning-up-the-heat-on-democrats/ April 2023