Dear Councilmembers,
Im writing to express my strong support for directing staff to create a
report and draft resolution, for Council approval, that supports the Air
Districts zero-emission heating appliance rules 9-4 and 9-6, with common
sense flexibility modifications.
The Air District rules are now over four years in the making. SPUR and
other policy, community, technical, and public organizations across the Bay
Area have worked to ensure these rules will be implemented affordably and
equitably. Substantial technical work is now going into a set of rule
amendments to provide flexibility for residents who encounter high-cost or
technically infeasible installs, or who simply are unable to afford
installing zero-emission equipment.
These rules are groundbreaking, and promise to deliver enormous health and
resilience benefits for our region, and in the fight against climate
change. By gradually phasing out gas appliances from our building stock, we
can eliminate more NOx pollution than all passenger vehicles in the region,
and avert 15,000 asthma attacks and up to 85 premature deaths each year,
with total annual health benefits of up to $890 million. These rules also
represent one of the boldest and most impactful regulations in California
to reduce our climate warming emissions and meet our climate pledges, and
deliver a livable future for our children. The Bay Area alone has the power
to transform the market for heat pumps, and make zero-emission heating the
first option for homeowners.
Unfortunately, weve recently seen opposition groups emerge spreading
disinformation about the Air District rules. In Southern California, oil
and gas money helped fuel a full fledged opposition campaign that rolled
back Air District appliance rules. The rule amendment process in the Bay
Area was built in to offer room for healthy debate about the rule design,
and to provide smart amendments to ensure the rules do not cause undue
harm. However, these groups may seek to use the rule amendment process to
roll back the rules entirely. We need cities in the Bay Area to stand with
one voice and express support for a gradual transition in our region to
zero-emission heating.
Thank you for your attention to this issue, and we look forward to working
with the City of Menlo Park on efforts to transition to cleaner equipment,
and cleaner buildings.
Sincerely,
Sam Fishman
Sustainability and Resilience Policy Manager, SPUR
510.590.2924
sfishman@spur.org
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