Our ban on natural gas for new homes is neither logical nor fair.
The recent City Council decision affirming the 2019 ruling to ban natural gas from new home construction is wrong for three reasons:
1. Natural gas usage in California will INCREASE as a result of this decision. This is because: A. California still uses natural gas to run about 50% of their electrical plants, and they will continue to use these plants for DECADES, as they build up their renewable/nuclear plants.
B. The conversion and transmission efficiency of California natural gas electrical generating plants is only about 40%. This means that the electrical plant will be using about 2.5 TIMES the amount of natural gas to provide the impacted homeowners with the energy equivalent they would have received had they been able to use natural gas appliances in their home.
C. In summary, hydrocarbon emissions will DISPROPORTIONATELY INCREASE near those electrical plants using natural gas, while MODESTLY DECREASING in Morgan Hill.
2. This rule will significantly increase the new homeowners total energy bill. As stated above, the natural gas fired electrical plants are running/transmitting at 40% efficiency. They are a profit-driven enterprise.
3. This rule unfairly, and needlessly, discriminates against the new homeowners impacted by this decision. The discrimination is unfair since only the new homeowners will see an increase in their energy bill. If the abandoning of natural gas as a low-cost source of heat energy is to be enacted, the city should make this universal for all citizens, not just the new homeowners.
The discrimination is needless because, as previously stated, natural gas usage for California will only go UP as a result of this decision. Even if the goal of the city council was to reduce the emissions from natural gas in Morgan Hill (at the expense of disproportionally INCREASING those emissions at the location of the power plant), the net reduction in Morgan Hill hydrocarbons will be very low, since only the new homes are being impacted.
Dan McCranie
Morgan Hill
