Local actions including
natural gas bans are key

Several recent letters and an oped piece have suggested that the natural gas bans in new construction being considered or enacted by cities in our region are not an effective way to address climate change. But they are wrong.

Natural gas combustion for heating results in significant CO2 emissions, and replacing it with efficient electric heat pumps powered by an increasingly de-carbonized electricity grid will result in much lower emissions.

In light of the increasing urgency of addressing climate change, such local actions are important, and they complement actions at the state and national level, such as setting goals for adoption of carbon-free electricity generation, enacting robust automobile mileage standards and placing a price on the carbon content of fossil fuels (accompanied by rebates of the collected revenue to households).

The combination of all these efforts will result in an effective and comprehensive program to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Robert Steele
Redwood City

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