Stop Supporting Climate Chaos and Stranded Assets

California Energy Commission

The California Energy Commission (CEC) is currently working on the 2022 Building Energy Efficiency Standards which take effect January 1, 2023. The CEC should require all electric systems for new construction in this next release. Read the full petition below urging them to do so, and add your name!

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To: California Energy Commission
From: [Your Name]

State law requires you to improve the energy efficiency requirements in our new buildings every three years. Those improvements reduce operating costs, stimulate market adoption of best practices systems in our buildings, and reduce the load on infrastructure relative to older buildings.

We are feeling the impacts from the climate crisis right now in California; it is simply catastrophically irresponsible to continue to expand the infrastructure to produce, store, and distribute methane gas, a powerful contributor to the global warming that is causing climate disruption and misery throughout the world.

Methane gas is immediately dangerous to produce, store, and distribute. Health impacts near drilling sites and leaking pipelines are severe and well documented; explosions occur with alarming frequency.

Using methane gas as directed produces PM matter and other health harming gases that are trapped in our buildings, contributing to asthma and other lung ailments, heart disease and strokes, and even dementia. Health professionals tell us that there is no safe level of PM and the damage is cumulative.

It is madness to continue to propagate the dangerous practice of using methane in our buildings and economically ridiculous as well. If California is to meet its emissions reduction goals set by law, we need to stop the expanded use of methane. Any further investment in methane gas will be stranded long before the end of its useful life, leaving home- and building-owners with the chore of expensive retrofitting.

Now is the time to require all electric new building construction.