VX News here republishes a San Francisco Chronicle article by Brooke Park on the Bay Area Air District board’s November 4 vote to delay its ban on natural gas water heater installations by one year, to January 2028. The board also added exemptions that could apply to about half of Bay Area households. The amendments cover lower-income property owners and homes with space or electrical constraints, and push compliance for multifamily buildings and deed-restricted affordable housing to 2033. The board rejected a motion by Supervisor Shamann Walton to table the vote and a motion by Benicia Mayor Steve Young to direct staff to draft a repeal; Walton cast the lone vote against the amended rule. District staff project that the water heater and furnace rules, the latter taking effect in January 2029, will together prevent 85 premature deaths and save more than $1 billion in health care costs annually. Read the original article here.
The Bay Area Air District board voted on Wednesday to delay the start of the natural gas water heater ban to January 2028 and approved several exemptions. It rejected a last-minute motion to delay the vote, and also rejected another motion that would have sought a proposal to make the transition to cleaner appliances voluntary.
After several hours of public comment, the board decisively voted to amend the hotly contested natural gas water heater ban, which prevents the installation of new appliances that emit smog-forming nitrogen oxides and will cause many residents to buy cleaner but more expensive heat pump water heaters when their gas water heaters breaks. On average, a heat pump model is $3,500 more expensive than a natural gas version, according to the air district.
The ban had been set to go into effect January 2027, but the year’s delay will allow the air district to expand public outreach, coordinate with retailers and contractors, and figure out how exemptions – which could apply to about half of Bay Area households — will work.
“The road to climate justice has often been paved by difficult choices,” San Francisco Supervisor and air board member Bilal Mahmood said. “I would just like to remind my colleagues to view this vote as a moment in history.”
Several times during the meeting, a small number of board members objected to moving forward with the proposal as a mandate, favoring instead a voluntary program. At the start of Wednesday’s air district meeting, board members Steve Young and Ray Mueller briefly disrupted the meeting flow to protest the lack of an option to repeal the mandate totally.
“I just want to ask one question before because I might leave the meeting and the question is really simple. Do we really only have two options today, either approve the amendments or let it go through as planned?” Mueller said. “I just wanted to clarify that because if it's that heavy handed, I'm probably gonna leave. So do we only have two options today, approve the amendments as put before the board or let it go?”
Young also opposed not giving “the board and the public an opportunity to express their opposition to a mandate in general. … I think it's simply wrong to box us in and not give us an ability to actually have a vote and have an opinion on the larger question.”
Addressing concerns from board members seeking a repeal vote, air district officials said that staff had not been authorized by a board majority to draft a repeal proposal. However, staff said that adopting the one-year postponement to January 2028 creates a window of time in which a majority of the 24-member board could choose to seek further changes.
At the end of the meeting, Young presented a motion for staff to return as soon as they are able to repeal the mandate. The motion overwhelmingly failed.
Separately, air board member and San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, who emerged as a vocal opponent of the mandate, made a motion to table the vote and not take action Wednesday. The vast majority of air board members also struck down that motion.
Walton sharply rebuked the ban, describing the rule as an unfunded mandate that creates severe financial strain on working class families. He said that communities of color he represents distrust regulators, and he was concerned they would still be forced to pay for cleaner appliances they cannot afford, despite the affordability amendments.
“There is no doubt in my mind that there will be a case that will come where regulators will feel that a person has the ability to do something that a household or that person or that family really would not be in a position to do,” he said.
Ultimately, only Walton voted against the natural gas water heater ban with amendments. Young abstained. Mueller left the meeting before the vote. Board members Dionne Adams, Ken Carlson, David Haubert and Gabe Quinto were absent.
The exemptions apply to three broad buckets of property owners. Those who are lower-income can bypass the ban if they contribute more than 28% of their income to their mortgage and property tax costs. Along with homeowners who are enrolled in public assistance programs, those who also make under 80% of the area median income will also qualify for an exemption.
Bay Area residents can check those income ceilings on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development database. For those in San Francisco, the cut off would be $117,700 for a one-person home and $168,100 for a household with four people. In Alameda County, a one-person households making less than $95,050, and a four-person household making under $135,750 would qualify for an exemption.
The Air District’s jurisdiction covers Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southwestern Solano and southern Sonoma counties.
Homeowners who don’t qualify for the income exemption may still qualify for one-time exemptions based on space or electrical constraints. A home with less than 700 cubic feet of space for a water heater and inadequate ventilation would be exempt. So would homes with electrical limitations, including no available breaker space or a panel rated below 100 amps.
Property owners may also install natural gas water heaters smaller than 30 gallons. If a home needs electrical upgrades before it can accommodate a heat pump, owners can use an emergency loaner program to install a gas water heater in the meantime.
Board members also voted to defer the compliance date to 2033for multi-family buildings and deed restricted affordable housing.
The Air District will also require households to replace broken natural gas furnaces with non-polluting alternatives in January 2029.
The water heater and furnace mandates, first passed in 2023 as the nation’s most aggressive clean-appliance policies, have generated heated debate across the Bay Area. Hundreds of public members signed up to speak on the issue Wednesday, with public health officials, youth organizations and climate advocates lauding the rule as a landmark policy. The air district staff expects both the water heater and furnace natural gas ban will save 85 people from a premature death and save more than a billion dollars in health care costs annually. The transition, too, would save homeowners up to $50 on utilities each year, according to the air district.
“If you look at all the natural gas combustion in buildings, the nitrogen oxide emissions associated with that exceed those of all the passenger vehicles in the Bay Area, all the refiners in the Bay Area,” said Greg Nudd, the district’s deputy executive of policy. “The vast majority is from space heating and water heating.”
At the same time, property owners have bucked against the impending mandate. While there are many rebates available to help fund the transition, many homeowners argue it is not fair to levy an unfunded mandate, especially when inflation is high.
Air district staff analyzed written public comments and found that 717 were in favor of the natural gas water heater ban and 514 were in opposition.
