BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Bay Area officials decided today (May 13) that curbing pollution is more important than affordability of water heaters.
The Bay Area Air District board, in a straw vote, advanced its ban on buying natural gas water heaters, which are $3,500 cheaper than electric water heaters but emit nitrogen oxides that cause lung problems, studies show. A final vote is planned in October.
The ban will take effect on Oct. 1, 2027. Low-income residents or homeowners spending more than 28% of their income on their mortgage would be exempt. Contractors could also get an exemption for homes that don’t have the space or electrical capacity.
“I am very optimistic about the ability of our grid and our electrical supply to handle this,” Palo Alto Mayor Vicki Veenker said at today’s meeting.
Veenker compared nitrogen oxides to secondhand smoke. She was one of 10 board members to support the ban, overruling eight board members against it.
From the Peninsula, San Mateo County Supervisor Noelia Corzo and Mountain View Councilman Chris Clark were in favor, and San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller was against.
“This is a historic expansion of the district’s regulatory power,” Mueller said. “Do we want to do this at this current time, with the current administration?”
Clark said he’s grateful that leaders before him banned dangers like asbestos despite political resistance, and it’s on today’s leaders to face the unintended consequences of natural gas infrastructure.
“The longer you wait, the more difficult it is to correct course,” Clark said.
Corzo said any family would choose a cost increase over slowly being poisoned.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer,” she said.
Veenker said residents would end up saving money on health care.
San Francisco Environment Director Tyrone Jue said cities can train contractors, streamline permits and offer financing to drive down costs.
The number one concern for those against the ban was the cost of living, especially as rents and gas prices are on the rise.
The air district is sending the wrong message at this time, Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas said.
“Most Californians will not be able to afford this,” El Cerrito Mayor Gabe Quinto said.
Pittsburg Councilwoman Dionne Adams said she doesn’t like that low-income residents would be exempt, because they’d still deal with the pollution.
“The exemption that we have signals that it’s okay for the vulnerable to suffer … that they’re not worth the investment,” Adams said.
Deputy Executive Officer of Policy Greg Nudd said the ban would reduce pollution throughout the Bay Area, even in areas with more exemptions.
“It just doesn’t sit well with me,” Adams replied.
Benicia Mayor Steve Young said local officials often rail against state mandates, yet the district is considering its own unfunded mandate.
“We would be much better off if we incentivized and educated and made it as seamless as possible to make the switch,” Young said.
The air district is also working to ban buying gas space heaters on Jan. 1, 2029.
Today’s discussion comes after more than 100 residents spoke for and against the ban on May 7.
Fletcher Middle School student Sarah Seeger said she was horrified when she learned natural gas water heaters poison homes with nitrogen oxides.
“I want a clean and healthy future,” she said.
San Jose realtor Ana Maria Russo said residents should be allowed to choose.
“Yet again, the middle class gets stepped on and shoved to the side,” she said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story should have said that the Bay Area Air District board, in a straw poll, favored a ban of gas-powered water heaters, the final vote will be in October. The chemical in question is nitrogen oxides.
This is what happens when “government” wants to run your lives and why so many normal people are leaving California.
They aren’t following science! Natural gas producers far less pollution than the existing electric generation methods. California doesn’t have the grid to supply power for this change.
The costs and inefficiency will drive more people out.
Your officials are nuts!
Spot on! As Thoreau famously said: “That government is best which governs least.”
Instead, we’re getting a taste of top-down progressive utopianism inflicted on us by people who are certain they should make our choices for us because they’re so much smarter than we are, as they proceed to make California less and less livable.
From the article :
Contractors could also get an exemption for homes that don’t have the space or electrical capacity.
Can homeowners use this exemption as well?
If the answer is no, why not?
If the contribution to pollution from gas water heaters is only 5%
And the remainder 95% from sources that will still pollute and likely to expand what is the forecasted reduction overall?
Rember not all electricity created in California is green!
I’m having a new 30 gallon gas water heater installed tomorrow. My house is 102 years old and my existing water heater is 15 years old. There’s no space for a heat pump water heater and I only have a 100 amp electric service which is maxed out. I’m a senior citizen so this should last me the rest of my life. My advice is to be proactive and take advantage of this year’s window of opportunity. You can bet the price of installation will rise considerably as we draw closer to year’s end.
Supporters of this law tell the victims that there will be exceptions to cover this and that. It’s telling that they have so many exceptions. Might make more sense if they avoided the exceptions by not passing the law in the first place.
As an air district director I need to clarify that no decision on the water heater ban was made, and won’t be until the final vote in October. The 10-8 vote you cited was a straw vote to indicate where the Board was at this point .
Steve Young
Benicia Mayor
If these guys force everyone to switch to heat pumps, I’m going to start selling ear plugs. I’ll make a fortune. Seriously, though, my neighbor put in a heat pump, got a subsidy and that thing is right by the property line. So the noise comes over to my property. I can always tell when he fires it up. I can hear it! The closer you get to it, the more it roars. We’re going to put up a sound wall to try and reduce the noise.
Mr. Young, I hope that means the board will reverse its decision in October, and that this isn’t a “done deal”. But I have the feeling this is a straw vote because you wanted to find out how much backlash you’d get before making this permanent. Maybe I’m wrong, but that seems to be the way the government does psych-ops on people. They say something is “tentative” or “temporary,” in order to get their foot in the door. You just want to see how angry people will get before forcing this down our throats.
If any of the members of the air district board claim in a future campaign that they support affordability, this decision needs to be thrown in their face. Government makes things more expensive and then wonders why people are moving away from California. And what’s the benefit of this regulation? Why not go after those who contribute 95% of this pollutant? Transportation, agriculture and industry. Ooo, I can see why the politicians on this board don’t want to step on the toes of any of those donors … uh, I mean polluters. Yeah, just stick it to the little guy and hope that this controversy blows over. If I see any board member’s name on a future ballot, they won’t be getting my vote. They include Vicki Veenker, Chris Clark, Noelia Corzo, Otto Lee, Rico Medina, Ray Mueller, Linda Sell. I think Mueller was the only peninsula rep who voted to suspend consideration of this law, so I’ll let him off the hook.
Not a coincidence that the votes to impose this restriction come from the wealthiest parts of the Bay Area. What’s a few thousand dollars?
I guess I’ll be going to Nevada to buy anything I need and install it myself.
How special of them telling us how to spend our money when the economy / stock market is so volatile. Love how these virtue-signalling “leaders” voted for conversion just when electric rates are expected o soar due to all the new data centers supporting AI.
Let’s hope Steve Ypung above is correct that this is only a straw vote.
We now return you to the constant utility rate hikes, campaigns to hike sales tax = even higher and the continued decline in sales tax revenue, when demands for power is ALREADY so high EV owners are told to charge their cars in off hours to avoid brownouts and blackouts…
Agree with Beleaguered Homeowner about not voting for those board members for any other higher office.
Board members don’t show their email addresses on the BAAQMD.gov website, no doubt because they don’t want to hear from us. However, you can (and should!) send comments to the clerk of the board (Marcy Hiratzka) at [email protected]
What does the board say about tankless water heaters? For households with low hot water usage they are more energy efficient. But electric tankless water heaters can’t heat fast enough for a bathtub max flow rate. Only gas tankless heaters can do that.
Setting aside the debate over gas versus electric water heaters, I’ve always thought it a bit wasteful to have 50 gallons of water hot and ready to go, all day long. And how many of us have checked what temperature it is set on? Those on demand electric systems work quite well. I use them frequently when I visit family in the UK. You want to stop handing money over to the energy industry? Stop paying them to keep water hot all day when you only need it for a few minutes at a time, a few times a day. There is a reason why Europe is more efficient with energy use. We could be as well. But corporate interests love inefficiency and deregulation. It keeps the money flowing.
Thank you very much!
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