GREEN BUILDINGS COMMITTEE

Pasadena is the next building electrification battleground

November 16, 2021

Staff for Pasadena's planning division are developing a proposal to ban gas hookups in most new buildings in the city, to be presented for a committee vote in the coming months, as they shared in an information-only presentation to the Municipal Services Committee on November 9. According to the presenters, they will take the next couple of months to do outreach and finalize the proposal, which would come before the Municipal Services Committee before going to the full council.

This proposal represents perhaps the best opportunity to pass a ban on gas in new buildings within Los Angeles county, which has been falling behind as cities in both Santa Barbara county and San Diego county have recently passed such measures.

In their presentation, the city staff outlined benefits of building electrification for Pasadena, including following through on commitments made in the city's Climate Action Plan. They indicated that they plan to use a health and safety ordinance as the basis for the ban, rather than a reach code aligned to the state energy code. Staff outlined a variety of possible exemptions that could be included in the final policy, clarifying that they had not made that determination yet. They also did not yet have a recommended implementation timeline.

Council member Jessica Rivas said she would support the measure. "It just obviously recognizes the climate emergency that we are facing so I would absolutely be supportive of this and I would prefer that we err on the side of being as inclusive as possible [fewer exemptions to the policy], but I understand there will be a process to work out the details."

Two other Council members were less definitive, however, demonstrating that passage of the proposal cannot be taken for granted.

Six callers made public comment about the presentation, with five of the six speaking in support of a building electrification mandate. On the other side, a caller on behalf of the Building Industry Association spoke in opposition, recommending "incentives and voluntary measures be considered."

With a limited time frame for public comment and many details still undecided, it is critical that Climate Reality members who live in Pasadena get involved to support a strong building electrification policy.

- Michael Rochmes
Chair, Green Buildings Committee

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