Climate Activists: Don't Forget About Natural Gas

Speaker 1: 00:00 San Diego is looking at a plan to meet climate goals by proposing a train station and high speed rail to cut fossil fuels with fewer cars on the roads. Activists say that moves us forward, but not far enough. Most homes still rely on natural gas and the San Diego union Tribune reporter Joshua Emerson Smith reports. While many cities in California have actually restricted the use of natural gas in new construction. San Diego has not Josh welcome. Good to be here. First. Let's talk about how impactful natural gas is to how we live and the environment it heats. Many of our homes powers the water heater and our stoves. How does that contribute to climate change? Speaker 2: 00:42 Well, burning natural gas is a greenhouse gas. Uh, it's less impactful than say coal. And so there's lots of talk about trying to replace dirty or fossil fuels with natural gas, or there has been over the last decade or so, although recently, it's come to light that a lot of methane emissions leak from the procuring of natural gas, either from fracking sites or through the transportation. And we know that methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas in and of itself. Speaker 1: 01:18 And speaking of that, how much he missions actually come from using natural gas to power our homes? Speaker 2: 01:24 Yeah. So in, in California, it's about 10 to 12% of our carbon footprint comes from homes, uh, either residential or commercial buildings Speaker 1: 01:36 And all of that contributes to climate change while San Diego has been seen as you know, ahead of the curve and responding to that activists say the city hasn't addressed the natural gas issue. Other areas though have done so with restrictions. What can you tell me about that? Speaker 2: 01:51 So there's thinking there's a thinking going on that we're going to have to retrofit a lot of the homes that currently rely on gas, which are about 80% of all homes in California. And so if we're going to build more homes, why hook them up to natural gas, if we're going to have to electrify them anyway in the future, goes to the thinking. And so some cities have taken it upon themselves to ban the use of natural gas in new home and commercial construction. Speaker 1: 02:24 So practically speaking, that means new homes need to switch over to electrical appliances, right? Speaker 2: 02:29 Eventually, uh, that's seems to be where the state is going. Uh, right now the state is trying to figure out how to just incentivize the use of electric appliances, like electric heat pumps for space and water heating and induction cooktop stoves, uh, to replace the old gas stoves. And it looks like the California energy commission is going to be revising its building efficiency in the next couple of, uh, weeks or months. And as part of that, we're expected to see incentives for moving towards more electric homes. However, not an outright ban. That's why some cities have said they've got to move faster than the state is moving. Speaker 1: 03:16 So tell me about the politics that are at play here. What have local activists said about this issue? Speaker 2: 03:21 Well, that really is one of the most interesting things here because the activists have long wanted a so-called transit oriented development. That's this super dense infill development where we put, um, four, five story buildings in urban areas next to transit to try to get people to take the trolley or whatever envisioned high-speed rail system we may have in the future over driving. And so they say, okay, if we're, if we're going to do this for the environment, how can natural gas play a part in that? Right. Especially if we're going to go have to go in and rip this stuff out later, why not just make sure everything gets hooked up to the electricity grid for this new greener future. That's really where we're seeing this, this kind of cleave between the, the politicians and the environmentalists going forward. So it'll be very interesting to see as they move forward with their high speed rail slash development plans, whether or not they continue to have the support of the, of the green groups in San Diego. Speaker 1: 04:33 Let me ask you this. If we move in that direction, how reliable is electricity though? I mean, at times utility companies rely on rolling blackouts to prevent wildfires because they can't bury their lines. Speaker 2: 04:45 Right. And, but we have to remember that delivering gas also takes electricity. So just because you have a blackout doesn't necessarily mean that your gas is always going to work. There is this question though, about, as we heap more and more things on the electrical grid from gas stoves, turning electric to vehicles, right? Gas powered vehicles, becoming electric, uh, will the grid be able to handle that? And that's kind of the conversation that we're having right now, especially in the wake of what we saw in Texas, where so many of the power plants, um, were not able to deliver energy during the recent snow storm. The question becomes, how do we really harden our electrical grid to prepare for this new future Speaker 1: 05:34 And how have companies that provide natural gas like SDG and E responded to attempts to ban natural gas in new construction? Speaker 2: 05:42 Well, SDG and E has, hasn't really had a big, uh, role in this Southern Southern California gas has been the one that's really launched the aggressive campaign to try to prevent the city by city bans, gas companies Speaker 1: 05:58 Have also tried to green up their product, so to speak, how have they done that? Right? Well, this is Speaker 2: 06:03 Well, all the gas companies are doing now. And that's why you'll hear jargon like decarbonized molecules, because really the issue is they have billions and billions of dollars. I mean, we all do to a certain extent, right? We all kind of own this as a society, billions of billions of dollars in, in gas pipelines under the ground. And so these companies are trying to figure out what are they going to do with all that infrastructure going forward in a world where natural gas, um, may is increasingly restricted. And so they're experimenting with things like adding hydrogen to the mix to try to green it up, um, using bio gas or renewable natural gas, where they capture they, um, emissions that come off of decomposing organic material. Although we don't really know what the product will be from the gas companies going forward. There's a lot of things that they're floating right now as kind of greener versions of natural gas. Speaker 1: 07:08 I've been speaking with San Diego union Tribune, reporter Joshua Emerson Smith, Joshua. Thank you. Speaker 2: 07:13 You're welcome. This has been great to be here.