HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/16/2020 Item 11, Christie
Clerk, Intern
Santa Lucia Sierra Club <
To:E-mail Council Website; Johnson, Derek
Subject:6/16 meeting, Item 11
TO: Mayor Harmon and Members of the Council
RE: June 16, 2020 meeting, Item 11 - Adopt a resolution for clean energy choice policy for new buildings and introduce ordinances
implementing an energy reach code and regulatory flexibility.
We would like to thank the Council for previously expressing your preference for all-electric new buildings and an ordinance
outlining local amendments to the California Energy Code.
Subsequent to your approval of the Clean Energy Choice Program for New Buildings last September, the UCLA School of Public
Health released the report Effects of Residential Gas Appliances on Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality and Public Health in
California.
The report, commissioned by the Sierra Club, was released in April. In addition to your staff report’s analysis of the Clean Energy
Choice Program’s carbon reduction and cost effectiveness, we would like to draw your attention to the report’s key findings, which
include:
Phasing out gas appliances and using advanced electric appliances will reduce hazardous air pollution (CO, NOx, NO2,
fine particulate matter and formaldehyde) and improve public health.
Replacing gas with electric appliances in California's homes would result in at least 350 fewer premature deaths
annually and over $3.5 billion in annual health benefits.
Children, the elderly, people of color, and low-income and environmental justice communities are especially vulnerable
to air pollution from gas appliances and should be prioritized in future policies to curb emissions.
Prior to your vote on the 16th and the second reading of the ordinance next month, should you hear further from opponents of this
common-sense resolution and amendment to the Energy Reach Code, we urge you to heed the words of an English magistrate 80 years
ago, who wrote:
“When the ghosts of the past stand in the path of justice clanking their chains, the proper course for the judge is to pass through them
undeterred.”
Thank you for your attention to this issue,
Andrew Christie, Director
Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club
P.O. Box 15755
San Luis Obispo, CA 93406
(805) 543-8717
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