Honorable Mayor Combs, Vice Mayor Nash, City Councilmembers Schmidt,
Taylor, and Wise, and Staff – I’m writing to 1) thank Councilmember Schmidt
for his request to bring a resolution to Council in support of the Bay Area
Air District zero-NOx space and water heating appliance rules and 2) to ask
that Council direct Staff to prepare a report and draft a resolution for
Council’s review and approval.
The Air District appliance rules, which passed with zero “no” votes and
just one abstention in 2023, are necessary to reduce health damaging air
pollution from the region’s buildings. The rules are estimated to avert 85
premature deaths and 15,000 asthma attacks annually, and save nearly $890
million in health costs. After an eighteen-month implementation working
group process with input from a broad range of stakeholders, the Air
District is looking to amend the residential water heating rule to minimize
unintended harms to vulnerable communities, grant exceptions for infeasible
installations, and provide additional workability for residents who need
it. These lifesaving and life improving rules are under attack from the
fossil fuel industry and their allies with a campaign fueled by fear,
misinformation, and disinformation. A resolution from Menlo Park, and other
local jurisdictions, will help protect these critical rules as they are
amended with common-sense flexibility measures. Additionally, these rules
are a powerful complementary regulatory tool that is critical to Menlo Park
as the City works to achieve the goals in its 2030 Climate Action Plan.
Appropriately, the City declared a climate emergency in 2019 – a resolution
supporting the Air District appliance rules is a necessary action in the
face of this emergency. This is an opportunity for the City of Menlo Park
to assure its residents, especially the younger generation, that it will do
what is necessary and right in order to create the future we all desire.
Thank you for all that you do to support our community. With gratitude,
John McKenna
