Tristan Spinski/The Washington Post
- About 1 in 5 Americans live in areas with policies for decarbonizing buildings, an analysis found.
- A multiyear push to eliminate fossil fuels from new construction has spread to nearly 100 cities.
- Buildings account for 13% of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
This article is part of Insider's weekly newsletter on sustainability, written by Catherine Boudreau, senior sustainability reporter. Sign up here.
Policies across the US aimed at eliminating fossil fuels from new homes and buildings have piled up fast since Berkeley, California, became the first US city to ban gas hookups in 2019.
Similar policies have spread to nearly 100, mostly liberal, municipalities in 11 states that either require or encourage the switch to electric heating, cooling, and cooking, according to an analysis published this month by the Building Decarbonization Coalition. As of this year, one in five Americans — some 72.5 million people — live in areas covered by those policies.
"We finally had a chance to take a breath and look at how fast things are changing," Panama Bartholomy, the executive director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for eliminating fossil fuels from buildings to combat the climate crisis, told Insider. "I am really surprised and impressed by this movement."
The report came shortly after a debate over gas stoves captured national attention when a federal official floated the idea of banning them over public-health concerns. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it wouldn't ban the appliance but that it was looking for ways to reduce hazards from pollutants like carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration, under the Inflation Reduction Act, is set to hand out billions of dollars to states later this year so they can offer rebates and tax breaks to consumers who want to make the switch to electric and help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Buildings account for 13% of US emissions, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The electrification push might already be having an influence on the market, Bartholomy said. While most Americans — an estimated 62% — already cook with electricity, the same isn't true for heating. But last year, for the first time, US shipments of electric heat pumps consistently outpaced gas furnaces, the coalition's analysis found. Heat pumps both warm and cool a home or building by circulating heat from indoors to outdoors and back again. They are more energy-efficient than furnaces that run on gas or fuel oil and can save people money on their utility bills.
Maine might be partially responsible for the trend. The state has already surpassed a goal set in 2019 to install 100,000 heat pumps in homes and businesses. So far, 116,000 have been installed, according to Efficiency Maine, a quasi-state agency.
The effort is part of Maine's broader goal to be carbon-neutral by 2045. About 30% of the state's emissions are from buildings, the majority of which burn fuel oil for heat.
States like California, Washington, and Colorado have gone even further. California and Washington, as of this year, have building codes that require new buildings to support all-electric appliances. A Colorado law set a 20% emissions-reduction target for buildings by 2030.
Still, headwinds remain for the electrification push. GOP-controlled legislatures in 20 states passed laws banning local governments from banning natural-gas hookups. These states account for almost one-third of US natural-gas demand for buildings, an S&P Global analysis found, saying existing gas demand wasn't at risk.
Bartholomy said he wasn't deterred, especially now that Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York has proposed a statewide ban on gas in new buildings.
"California and New York together have an outsized role in demand for gas supplies and appliances," Bartholomy said.