Dear Honorable Mayor and Council Members,
I urge you to NOT approve the EQC’s well-intended recommendations as proposed. The goal is noble, but it is only one way to address the pressing challenges of climate change. Further, it is fundamentally flawed and highly likely to exacerbate issues of social inequity.
As noted in the Staff report “there are many considerations in electrifying existing buildings, and include but are not limited to building stock diversity, equity, cost effectiveness and market readiness.” And I’d like to highlight some of those considerations:
BUILDING STOCK – most of the single family homes in Menlo Park were built at a time when gas appliances and heaters were common; thus, their electric service is likely wholly inadequate for conversion to virtually any major electric appliance, much less to all-electric as proposed.
Here is our own personal experience: We considered replacing our gas cooktop with an induction cooktop. We discovered that to make this one change would entail upgrade of the electrical service to the house from the pole (by PG&E), and rewiring to get the power from the service panel at the back of the house to the subpanel in the garage at the front of the house. From a friend who had just replaced their water heater with an electric one, we learned that their new service and re-wiring - alone - cost approximately $5,000. Their project also took months to implement. We chose not to replace that gas-powered appliance because of the cost, invasiveness, and time involved to upgrade the electric service.
Lest anyone say that we do not care about climate change, I want to mention that we chose our home 30 years ago specifically because it has passive solar access so we could minimize the need for heating and light during winter days. Also, I was a co-author of the Green Ribbon Committee’s Climate Change recommendations and co-chair of its green building subcommittee that made practical recommendations. Long ago we added insulation, replaced single-glazed windows with double-glazed, and installed photovoltaic panels on our roof. Over the last few years, we also replaced all our gas-powered cars with all-electric ones.
SOCIAL EQUITY – The financial impact of replacing electric service would hit hardest our lower income and senior residents who would experience upfront costs and not benefit from financial savings thirty years in the future.
RECOMMENDATION – Before embarking on this road, please examine much more closely the impacts on households in Menlo Park, and consider alternative approaches to addressing climate change that the city itself can do:
Evaluate Impacts - survey what the current electric service is in typical homes in various parts of Menlo Park, assess what would be required to support all-electric homes, and examine the financial impact and affordability of the total costs involved.
In the financial analysis, be sure to consider the median duration of residency in different parts of town. The staff report analysis suggests that these changes pay off in 30 years; that may not be equitable or persuasive to those who are unlikely to reside in that home for 30 years or to seniors on fixed incomes who may not survive long enough to experience any financial benefits.
Consider alternatives to address climate change such as
Promote replacement of gas-powered vehicles with electric by subsidizing installation of electric chargers for multifamily buildings, and in all new construction (residential and commercial) if not already required
Promote alternatives to using gas-powered vehicles
· Expand shuttle network to minimize the need to use a gas-powered vehicle within town
· Expand a well-connected network of bike paths, including protected bike lanes, so schoolkids and adults can safely get around town without a car.
Protect winter-time solar access with meaningful rules regarding solar access so that demands for heating and light are minimized during winter daytime. Some potential rules were proposed approximately 20 years ago by architects Steve Schmidt (former Mayor) and Sam Sinnott but never implemented.
Evaluate whether there is methane “leakage”, such as at gas meters or Bayfront Park.
CONCLUSION: I urge you to not proceed with the recommendation. More analysis is needed, both of the proposal's impacts and of alternatives.There may be other ways to more immediately address climate change.
Respectfully submitted,
Patti Fry, former Menlo Park Planning Commissioner
