California is now seeking to meet federal ozone standards by banning natural gas furnaces and water heaters in homes by 2030.
“We need to take every action we can to deliver on our commitments to protect public health from the adverse impacts of air pollution, and this strategy identifies how we can do just that,” said California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph.
Ever abundant natural gas is now the bad guy. This is insane.
All of these foolish proposals to ban the use of natural gas will be harmful to the public as people are forced to purchase new, pricey, products and then run them with electricity, which is consistently two to three times higher in price than natural gas.
For starters this means Californians will have to familiarize themselves with hot water heat pumps: very expensive all-electric heating appliances that replace a traditional gas water heater. I have an on-demand heat pump running my water heater, and it works great – but it runs off of economical natural gas.
And imagine ditching your furnace and replacing it with the equivalent of multiple portable space heaters? Talk about uneconomical.
How will such arm-and-a-leg purchases be made by those on a fixed income? What about income properties that are forced to make the changes? Those incredible costs will be passed on to renters in the form of increased monthly rent.
And no doubt the electrical grid will be further strained in California by this mandate. I just don’t see where California will get its energy. Currently, 47% of the electrical grid is powered by natural gas. Going all solar won’t do it; it’s only available in the day when it’s sunny. Wind? It only works when there’s a moderate breeze. And what the decision makers will not tell you is that all industrial solar and wind generation plants require a natural gas backup.
Actually, this isn’t insane. It’s maniacal.
The state has also mandated that no new gas or diesel vehicles be sold beginning in 2035. The grid in California is already shaky; electric-vehicle owners are constantly being told to avoid charging between 4 and 9 p.m. As of the end of 2021, less than 3% of California’s entire vehicle fleet has been replaced with electric cars, and there is already a major grid issue.
Where will California get the electricity required to ban fossil fuels?
But back to greenhouse gases: America’s natural gas utilities invest millions and millions of dollars each years to advance low and zero-carbon energy technologies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By the way, this technology has led to a 69% decline in emissions since 1990. By all accounts (except in the collective minds of the green activists), natural gas is very clean.
America does the best job of any country when it comes to cleaning up its environment. The world’s biggest air pollution problems are in China, India and Russia for starters – not the U.S.A.
And one more thing: Since when did the government get into the business of telling us what we are to purchase?
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