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Home My WebLink About9/3/2019 Item 18, Horholm Purrington, Teresa From:Harmon, Heidi Sent:Sunday, September 1, 2019 1:57 PM To:Poul Norholm; E-mail Council Website Subject:Re: NO on new Ordinance on natural gas Thank you for writing in to share your concern about the upcoming Reach Code updates. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of intentional misinformation spread through the community so I thought it might be helpful to share some facts which can serve as an important guide in this conversation. The City of San Luis Obispo and the vast majority of the community members here are committed to action on the climate crisis. This Reach Code is how we turn those goals in policy and bring to life a cleaner, healthier, more efficient built environment that is in alignment with those values. Transitions are difficult, there’s no doubt about that. We are committed to not only transitioning to the renewable energy future that we need and deserve, but we are deeply committed to supporting those for whom this transition presents unique need burdens and challenges. We are the first generation to fully understand the depth of our climate challenges and thus the first- generation to meaningfully address it. We are pioneers- pioneers of the possible. We need all of us to join together around a vision of a livable thriving place. And I hope that wherever you stand today that we can meet in a place grounded in the data of what we are up against and what it will take to overcome our biggest challenges, and not swayed by the special interests that abide by their own agenda. We must work together, and we must work for the future. These conversations make us better- they make us stronger as we work together to create the future we want. Myth: Retrofits and Remodels Are Affected, (Or, San Luis Obispo is making homeowners pay to remove gas appliances and replace them with heat-pump and induction technology) - On the bottom of page 222 of the City Staff Report, under the previous page’s heading “Report In Brief”, in the fourth full paragraph it clearly states in the first sentence the EXEMPTIONS to any Reach Code measures. The first two of these exemptions are: additions and alterations, i.e. retrofits and remodels. To be finally clear, retrofits and remodels are exempt from any of the Reach Code encouragements. Only brand-new construction is encouraged to build to the Reach Code standard - and even then, not required. Myth: Gas Is Efficient - Cooking with gas is one of the more inefficient means of preparing our food. We’ve been sold an idea - and we bought into the idea - that filling our home’s air space with toxic fumes is the modern, normal way to prepare food. An analogy for you: Once a week, you arrive at a fuel station to fill your truck up with gas. You pay full price, and you fill your tank completely. As you climb back in your truck and start the engine, the gas gauge needle on your dashboard immediately drops to only 35-40% full, and 60-65% of the fuel you paid for is now floating inside your truck’s cab for you to inhale. What would be your reaction? That’s exactly what happens while cooking food with natural gas. Only 35-40% of the fuel you are using and paying for goes to cooking the food, to heating the element which then transfers heat to your meal, and the other 60-65% just floats around the air, around your home, and into your body. 1 With induction cooking, 90% of the energy generated at the source goes directly to the food in the pan. Ninety percent! And there are no VOC’s floating around your home’s atmosphere; no gas for potential explosions; no fumes needing large exhaust hoods. Myth: Natural gas is “clean” - What we have come to accept as “natural gas” is made up of 92%-98% methane. California imports 84% of its natural gas - methane - from different places such as Texas, the Southwest USA, the Colorado Rockies region, and Western Canada. We produce only 12% our own methane in California. During the importing process, in deriving natural gas from these other sources and transporting it across the landscape to California, methane leaks from the transport pipes. A methane leakage rate above 2.3% has been found conclusively detrimental to the climate. A leakage rate of more than 3% effectively reverses any minuscule benefit derived from importing the gas in the first place, and a leakage rate above 4% would make natural gas even more environmentally damaging than coal plants. California’s average leakage rate while importing its methane from these various places is 3.6%, meaning that just by importing gas, the methane leakage rates alone negate any sort of “clean” benefit. Myth: San Luis Obispo is “banning” gas - Quite simply, nothing is being banned. While the gas company is spending money on ads proclaiming people must stand up to the gas ban, it’s in the definition as a “Choice”program Myth: Your choices are being “stripped away” by local government - No one is taking away your choices, no one is limiting creativity in your buildings. If you can imagine a way to power a home, you can still do that. No one, no where, is presenting an ordinance that says you can or cannot do anything. By the very definition of the policy, it is a Clean Energy Choice Program. It’s a choice, and the choices are all still there. Myth: Natural gas is reliable - On September 13, 2018, more than 40 homes exploded in fire around the Merrimack Valley in Massachusetts; 30,000 people had to be evacuated; and another 80 fires burned around three cities when old natural gas pipelines depressurized which sent full pressure into the new gas pipes and residential- distribution network. This caused natural gas to build-up unknowingly inside residents’ homes until a powder-keg like effect occurred and a domino-chain of explosions took place. Also, during the last three years, Cape Cod, MA has had to instill a moratorium on gas pipeline installations to new construction because the gas pipelines were deemed so unsteady as to not be able to handle more capacity. Myth: Natural gas workers will be out of jobs - See above. Natural gas is not going away, and fifty years from now, there will still be plenty of jobs maintaining a rapidly deteriorating, highly explosive, and dangerous distribution system. Those jobs are not going away. Myth: Natural gas is “affordable” - SoCal Gas must publish publicly their anticipated increases in cost, and they have published that future increase over the next two years to be 45.8%. Myth: Natural gas is plentiful - By very definition, natural gas is a fossil fuel, i.e. a fuel that has a limited and finite amount. It is not plentiful, and intact is quite difficult to obtain, dangerous to obtain, and highly expensive to obtain. Myth: Electric appliances and electric heating are more expensive than gas - Electric appliances similar to those of the 1970’s, more than half a century ago, were terrible. Those old red-coil electric burners which would light anything on fire that came near them? Never again. That old electric resistance power was neither efficient nor comfortable. Electric resistance heating was also highly inefficient with only a minuscule percentage of the source power going to the heat supply. Those old baseboard heaters? Also, never again! Electric heat-pump appliances and heat-pump heating and cooling are more than 90% efficient. They use very little power to operate. You already know how they work because you have them in your home today and you wouldn’t be able to live without it. Your refrigerator is heat-pump technology. It moves air from space to another, utilizing the difference in temperature to condition your food in a hot pan or a cold refrigerator, your water, and your homes air temperature. If it seems unfamiliar, know that just about anywhere you have ever traveled in the world outside of the USA uses heat-pump technology for their homes and buildings, for their kitchens, for their water, and the reason for that is its efficiency in delivering from source-to-use; it’s low power usage and thereby cost; and its cleanliness. For anyone doubting or questioning the use of heat pumps in heating and cooling and claiming inefficiency in cold weather, look as far as Norway, Iceland, Japan...or look as close as New England, Minnesota, and Canada 2 where heat-pump heating and cooling is used to great effect and efficiency in places where 5’ of standing snow and single- digit temperatures occur for months in a row. Myth: This has been sprung upon us with no chance for input! - On Pg. 241 of the City Staff Report, it is written clearly that public discussion around building decarbonization began taking place - publicly - on September 18, 2018. Then on Pg. 242, a graphic outline is listed of the many public opportunities during the year following September 18, 2018 which concerns were asked to be voiced, opportunities discussed, and solutions presented. Myth: Monterey Bay Community Power receives electric from natural gas - Monterey Bay Community power provides only 100% carbon-free electricity: 66% from hydroelectric, and 34% from a combined wind, geothermal, solar, and biomass/biowaste. Nowhere does Monterey Bay Community Power receive or provide electricity from natural gas. To a Better World, Mayor Harmon     From: Poul Norholm <norholmbuildersinc@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, August 23, 2019 1:31:13 PM To: E-mail Council Website <emailcouncil@slocity.org> Subject: NO on new Ordinance on natural gas I would like to voice my opinion about the potential new ordinance that would ban natural gas in all residential & commercial new builds. Natural gas is a clean, cost effective and plentiful fuel that provides an easy way to heat water and your home. If you don’t use gas then you will be forced to use more electricity and that makes “NetZero” sense. Please do not instate this ordinance. Bad for our future! Thanks, Poul Norholm Norholm Builders, Inc. Residential & Commercial Cell (805) 714-0446 Fax (805) 481-1272 Website: www.norholmbuilders.com 3