San Jose set to become largest U.S. city to enact natural gas ban

An article in the Mercury News reported that on Tuesday, San Jose's city council approved an ordinance barring natural gas in new single-family homes, low-rise multifamily buildings and detached granny flats beginning next year. San Jose is now the largest city to pass an ordinance banning natural gas from many new buildings, joining the cities of Berkeley and Menlo Park in taking ambitious action to reduce current and future greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to barring natural gas from certain new buildings, the ordinance will lay the groundwork for the electrification of all other buildings: "City leaders also voted to require new buildings be equipped for all-electric operation, even if they continue to rely on other sources of energy in the near term, and, in some cases, solar power. And in a bid to encourage developers to go all-electric, the council said builders who choose to use natural gas should be held to higher energy efficiency standards."

Read the full article here.