Dear Honorable Menlo Park City Council Members,
Thank you for your service in governing our city. I appreciate the chance to express my opinion regarding the natural gas ban being considered by this council.
Just to provide some context, I'm extremely pro-environment. I provide the following examples to illustrate to what extent I personally try to save our environment and have been doing all of my life. My mother has also always taught us to reuse and not waste anything, so this training started at a young age. I reuse everything possible (i.e., take out food containers, Costco cardboard boxes, anything that I can). I compost all food scraps in my garden or in the green bin. I searched everywhere and gave away for reuse/resale all of my housing parts when I renovated my house a couple of years ago, including all kitchen/bathroom cabinets, tubs, doors, hardware, appliances (including broken ones), absolutely everything I could (to Habitat for Humanity, Building Resources, Building Together, Craigslist, etc.). I take all electronic wasted and other things that shouldn't go into garbage to San Carlos Shoreway Environmental Center. I have driven an electric hybrid car since 2005 and bought a plug-in hybrid in 2019 when the previous one died. I personally search online and pick up items that can be used by homeless veterans through the Menlo Park VA program and dropped off 30+ carloads of home necessities in 2020 and have been doing this for many years.
So, I strongly urge the council to consider the following:
1. Only incentives and not a ban.
2. And any sort of ban should apply to all commercial and industrial enterprises first and residential home owners last. Any gas appliances used by commercial and industrial enterprises will each consume much more than residential appliances.
3. If there is a potential ban, then I strongly urge that
* a ban be restricted to future remodels by way of approving only those permit applications for electric appliances, and new construction, and
* ensure that ALL gas appliances installed prior to the effective date be exempt from the ban for the life of that appliance, regardless of changes in property ownership.
These are the reasons why I don't think there should be a ban:
1. Wholly unfair to force existing gas appliance owners to change them out, when they complied with regulations at the time of installation, which punishes law-abiding citizens.
2. Wholly unfair to place the cost of changing out existing gas appliances on current or future owners, at any time including when a house/condo is sold, since they were permitted (with fees!!) by the city at the time of installation.
* If the city wants to be green, then the city should pay for it and not force the cost on law-abiding citizens, who installed gas appliances that were approved with city permits at the time of installation.
* Even if the city were to offset the entirety of exorbitant labor, appliance, hotel costs, there is the complete disruption of the home while the changes are happening, which could require complete re-wiring of electricity throughout the house to accommodate the new appliances, moving of gas lines to accommodate electrical wiring, removal/dumping of existing appliances, purchase of new appliances, moving to a hotel while the renovations are being completed, etc.
* Commercial/industrial enterprises has just as much energy utilization. Focus the ban on commercial/industrial enterprises.
* For already one of the most expensive cities in the bay area to live, this additional cost would make potentially new potential residents even more hesitant to buy properties in Menlo Park.
3. Electric appliances aren't better for the environment, due to generation & production methods
* Electricity in the US is generated from primarily coal (19%) and natural gas (40%) as of 2020. So,
* https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php
4. Electric appliances are not more energy efficient than gas
* Think Energy - Gas Vs. Electric Appliances
* https://home.howstuffworks.com/gas-vs-electric-stoves.htm
5. If you want to improve the environment in California, it would be a greater impact and more efficient for you to focus your resources on getting the state to decrease use of dirty energy sources at the generation and production part of the process. Receipts of Coal Delivered for Electricity Generation increased by 23% from 2020 to 2021 in California.
* https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_4_6_a
6. Electricity is not 100% reliable and not 100% available, so relying entirely on electricity for heating, cooling, food preparation, etc. in the house creates a single point of failure that can interrupt all of those systems to sustain life. If there is no failsafe to electricity, such as gas, for appliances in the house, and as a result we risk people becoming dying when they cannot bear the heat or the cold, prepare food, heat water, etc.
7. A ban could increase the number of people, who change out electric appliances to gas ones without permits due to a desire for a gas stove or to decrease ongoing cost of electric appliances. This would increase the risk of safety/fire danger in the area that already has increasingly high risk of fire every year.
Now, all that said, I am supportive of incentives to get people to change, but not regulations that punish law-abiding citizens, who got approved permits for which they paid expensive fees, to incur an exorbitant cost and hassle to comply with a potential ban that doesn't even begin to solve the problem of climate change in the state, let alone the country.
Thanks in advance for your consideration,
Suzan Liao
132 Buckthorn Way, Menlo Park
510-468-7974
