San Francisco Bans Natural Gas Use in New Development

San Francisco has followed in Berkeley's historic 2019 footsteps to place a city-wide ban on the use of natural gas in new buildings.

"In a meeting on Tuesday, the city's Board of Supervisors passed legislation requiring new residential and commercial building construction to utilize all-electric power, starting with projects that file permits next year," reports Kristin Musulin.

The ordinance comes as part of an ongoing effort on the part of city officials to reduce climate change-fueling carbon dioxide emissions, says District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, connecting the state's brutal 2020 wildfire season to the destructive effects of climate change. 

"The board's unanimous vote concludes nearly a year of deliberation with the Zero Emissions Building Taskforce, Mandelman said, which brought together affordable housing and mixed-use developers, architects and engineers, labor and building trades and community advocates to craft the legislation," writes Musulin. 

Since Berkeley passed a groundbreaking gas banning ordinance in 2019, 40 cities in California have followed suit. Musulin reports that ordinance proponents are now looking to large cities like Los Angeles to pass gas ban legislation and for Governor Gavin Newsom to champion statewide legislation. 

Musulin's article lays out several lines of reasoning for San Francisco's recent ordinance and describes how "a shift to all-electric construction can be done incrementally to ensure it doesn't overburden industries."