Over a dozen cities in California have implemented new zoning codes banning natural gasses in homes this year, in order to combat so-called “global warming,” USA Today reports.
The bans have been implemented in such cities as Berkeley and Sunnyvale in the Bay Area, and Santa Monica in the south. The move has been endorsed by radical environmentalist groups and academic elites, and criticized by homeowners and natural gas companies.
The bans are ostensibly meant to encourage more homeowners to switch over to electricity-based homes, but this presents problems of its own. A study by the American Gas Association revealed that all-electric homes would cost, on average, anywhere from $750 to $910 more per year than homes fueled by natural gas.
A spokeswoman for the Sierra Club, which endorses such bans, said that “there’s no pathway to stabilizing the climate without phasing gas out of our homes and buildings.” These bans at the local level reflect the broader agenda of the state’s Democratic Party, as Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order dictating that the state become “carbon-neutral by 2045.”