Dear Menlo Park City Council,
I am a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford
University who specializes in transitioning the energy infrastructure of
cities, states, and countries entirely to 100% clean, renewable energy.
Also, in 2017, I finished construction of my own all-electric (zero
natural gas) home on the Stanford University campus. This home also won
a Silicon Valley Clean Energy all-electric showcase award
https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwww.svcleanenergy.org%2fmark-jacobson%2f&c=E,1,FfmmK2Pk90tEDnpQwJiDzFQesycCPzaqnqCar-G4nrSKsiuu67kGrfvA2M9yode-A3C2YbmpAJM0Hky-9fSIOF7Ou7ETkFhks5b2mp3mGvwNYc-F&typo=1
This home has no natural gas hooked up to it. It is run on rooftop solar
PV, batteries in the garage, electric heat pumps for air and water
heating and air conditioning, an electric induction cooktop,
all-electric appliances, and it powers electric vehicles.
In four years, I have not had a single blackout in my home. The five or
six times the power went out in the neighborhood, my electricity stayed
on due to the batteries.
In four years, I have not paid a single electricity bill, natural gas
bill, or gasoline bill. I have also been paid about $700 per year back
by my utility for the extra solar I sold back to the grid.
The overall payback time of the solar and battery system is five years
with federal and state subsidies and ten years without.
I avoided a $6,000 natural gas hookup fee and $6,000-$12,000 in natural
gas pipes. I also avoided paying for some expensive roofing material.
My induction cooktop boils water in half the time as a natural gas stove
and cooks perfectly (much better than old electric resistance stoves).
In sum, it is much less expensive to have only one source of energy in a
home rather than two.
Natural gas is not only an unnecessary cost for a home, but it also
creates indoor air pollution (nitrogen oxides, uncombusted organics)
when it is burned indoors. It also creates a fire/poison risk in some cases.
In addition, where does the natural gas come from? In the U.S., there
are 1.3 million active oil and gas wells and 3.1 million inactive ones.
50,000 new wells are drilled every years. The fossil fuel industry now
occupies 1.3% of all U.S. land area. 50,000 new wells will be needed
every year forever if we continue using gas. The U.S. is being destroyed
state by state by natural gas drilling. Using gas in homes contributes
to this devastation.
Finally, we cannot solve the climate or air pollution problems the world
faces if we continue using natural gas.
Given that it is less expensive in medium and long run to eliminate the
use of natural gas in buildings, the fact that we do not need natural
gas in homes, and the fact that we need to focus on eliminating air
pollution locally and global warming, I strongly urge you to ban the use
of natural gas in buildings in Menlo Park.
Sincerely,
Mark Z. Jacobson
--
Mark Z. Jacobson
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Director, Atmosphere/Energy Program Work tel: 650-723-6836
Stanford University jacobson@stanford.edu
Yang & Yamazaki Environment and Energy Bldg (Y2E2)
473 Via Ortega, Room 397 Twitter: @mzjacobson
Stanford, CA 94305-4020 www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/
