San Anselmo will be requiring all-electric utilities in new residential buildings.
The Town Council voted 4-0 Tuesday to approve an ordinance banning gas lines from being installed during construction of new residences as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Councilmember Ford Greene was absent from the meeting.
The move follows a Marin County Civil Grand Jury report that called on local governments to speed up the transition from gas-fueled appliances to electric ones. San Anselmo, San Rafael and MCE — the electricity provider formerly known as Marin Clean Energy — have been working on such efforts, and Fairfax adopted a similar ordinance in 2021.
Mayor Alexis Fineman said the ordinance is an important step and she looks forward to “continued efforts to electrify and decarbonize our built environment.”
“The science is clear: We have an urgent and moral imperative to transition away from fossil fuels and greenhouse gases,” Fineman said. “As we begin to phase out natural gas infrastructure, we should also seek out creative opportunities to support our residents and businesses to make this challenging, but necessary, transition easier for our community.”
Fineman said methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a dangerously potent greenhouse gas and plays an outsized role in contributing to the climate catastrophe, locally and globally.
To that point, Susannah Saunders, vice chair of the town’s climate commission, said cooking on gas stoves releases the same fumes as exhaust from a car and that it’s more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat.
“I hope you will vote to pass this ordinance because the consequences of not taking this action are the stuff of nightmares,” she told the council.
The town had issued a community survey on the issue. Of 96 respondents, more than 50% said they were opposed to the all-electric ordinance, citing concerns of cost, vulnerability during outages and distrust in Pacific Gas and Electric Co., among other reasons.
However, those who commented at the meeting were encouraged by the move.
While the council was interested in imposing the ordinance on commercial construction as well, town staff said that would require a rewrite of the proposed ordinance. Staff had planned on proposing the all-electric commercial ordinance at a later date.
“I think this is absolutely the direction we need to be moving in,” Councilmember Steve Burdo said. “This draft ordinance before us, I think, represents another opportunity for us to move away from our fossil fuel dependency.”
