Populics

By Aidan Rodriguez-Swanson

Following the City of San Jose’s climate emergency declaration last month, the city has the opportunity to lead the country in taking action toward the necessary green energy transition by enacting a gas ban. San Jose, with a population over 1 million people, could be the nation’s largest city to ban gas in new construction projects. 

For those unaware of how we got here or what is going on, let me provide a little overview. Natural gas, a better alternative to coal, is typically used in buildings for heating and stoves. It also comes with major drawbacks, some deadly and others… less deadly. Eight people were killed in 2010 when PG&E’s willful negligence for safety led to a natural gas pipeline exploding in a San Bruno neighborhood. While PG&E’s corruption and greed are a story for another time, in earthquake-prone California, inaction to ensure safety is fatal and gas lines only compound the lethality. 

At the same time, natural gas poses an even larger threat as a major contributor to climate change because of its methane composition. On top of the 3% of natural gas that escapes into the atmosphere, a quarter of energy use in California comes from buildings that do not use renewable energy. Yes natural gas is better than coal, but its negatives far outweigh the positives especially when there are renewable energy alternatives. Gas should no longer be the baseline standard for buildings, or transportation for that matter. 

Fortunately, not all is doom and gloom. While the retrofitting of current buildings with renewable energy sources within San Jose is a separate and equally important task, the prevalence of natural gas can be mitigated. 

The city is taking steps toward two gas ban policies, one for new single-family homes, multi-family low-rise buildings, and ADUs and the other for new municipal buildings. On October 29th, the city council will hear about these proposed bans, which would start on January 1st 2020 if passed. Nothing like starting a new decade on a positive step.

Even though the city is acting with the relative urgency the community needs of them when facing this climate crisis, there is more that needs to be done. The ban should not stop with what is currently proposed, it should include all new infrastructure. Low-rise multi-family buildings are three stories or less, high-rise buildings need to be included as well. Berkeley has already enacted a gas ban and San Jose can easily follow suit. With a climate emergency declared and the problem of gas understood, why wait? 

The bold policy for which the climate crisis demands cannot be done piecemeal. San Jose can start the new decade at the nation’s forefront with a complete gas ban, the significance of the 10th largest city in the U.S. banning gas in all new infrastructure cannot be understated. But perhaps they will wait until after Google begins construction to muster the strength to do what is necessary. 

Time is unfortunately not on our side, we can’t wait.

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Aidan Rodriguez-Swanson is a writer and editor for Populics. You can follow him on Twitter @AidanRSwanson.