(RightWing.org) – San Francisco is notorious for its ultra-liberal politics, with leaders and policymakers who seem obsessed with destroying residents’ rights while letting the city collapse into a feces-smeared crime zone. Now they’ve done it again. This time Bay Area officials have passed a ban on natural gas appliances, even though they know it will make life harder and more expensive for residents.
San Francisco latest Dem city to crack down on gas appliances https://t.co/NqArfncgLc
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 17, 2023
On March 15, the Bay Area Air Quality District Board (BAAQDB) voted to ban the sale and installation of new gas appliances starting in 2027. There’s an exemption for gas stoves, but an earlier law already means those aren’t an option for many new buildings. Meanwhile, the new law will only apply to water heaters, furnaces and fireplaces. The ban follows a 2020 law that prohibits gas connections to new buildings in San Francisco; the only exemption is for restaurant stoves. Adding the two laws together, the only gas appliances allowed in the city will be stoves in restaurants and buildings built before June 2021.
The BAAQDB says gas appliances “significantly impact our air quality” and cause “dozens” of deaths, along with the obligatory woke claim that poor air quality is somehow worse for non-white people.
Residents aren’t happy, though. Some are protesting that when they need to replace old appliances with electric ones, the costs will be crippling — one man said the estimated cost of switching to an electric furnace was up to $45,000. Others say they just don’t have space to fit electric replacements. Meanwhile, even the BAAQDB admits switching to electric will increase energy costs for residents, plus up to a billion dollars for required infrastructure upgrades; they just don’t seem to care.
Residents might care, though. The San Francisco Bay area is one of the most expensive places to live in the entire US, and people are getting fed up with it. Last year the US Census found Bay Area residents were more likely to be considering a move to another metro area. Telling residents they have a choice of a new home or a gas stove — but not both — plus making them pay more for heating isn’t going to improve the situation.
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