Bay Area Banning New Gas-Burning Furnaces, Water Heaters

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (AQMD) issued new regulations this week on nitrogen oxide {NOx) emissions that will effectively ban the sale of new gas-burning furnaces and hot water heaters in the District, starting in 2027.

The ban will be implemented in phases, depending on the size and type of the equipment. The water heaters and furnaces sold in the Bay Area be required to emit no NOx by the implementation dates, which rules out units that burn natural gas.

In its ruling, the District sidestepped one type of gas-fired appliance that has generated heat of the political kind: The Bay Area AQMD mandate to eliminate NOx emissions does not cover gas-burning stoves.

The mandate is designed to force homeowners and building operators to buy electric heaters or heat pumps. According to the Bay Area AQMD, gas-burning furnaces and water heaters generate more NOx each year that all of the cars in the region.

The regulations don’t require the replacement of existing heating and hot water systems, and they allow old gas-burning units to be repaired after 2031, ensure that the gas-fired units likely be in use for several years after that in older buildings.

Several Bay Area cities, including San Francisco and Berkeley have passed ordinances that prohibit gas hookups for new buildings. Berkeley became to first city in the US to prohibit gas hookups in 2019, followed by San Francisco.

In 2021, New York City adopted a gas hookup ban effective in new buildings of less than seven stories this year, and in larger new buildings in 2027.

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul in January to phase in statewide ban on natural gas heating and gas-powered appliances as well as gas hookups in new buildings, beginning in 2025 for smaller buildings and 2028 for larger buildings. Under the proposal, NY also would prohibit the sale of any new fossil-fuel heating systems starting in 2030.

In the wake of an uproar in Congress sparked by a Consumer Product Safety Commission member who said in January the federal agency would consider banning gas stoves due to harmful emissions, the head of the CPSC emerged to put out the fire.

CPSC chief Alexander Hoehn-Saric contradicted Commissioner Richard Trumka, who had said a national ban on new gas stoves was “on the table.”

“I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so,” Alexander Hoehn-Saric said, in a statement. He added that the four-person commission is “researching” emissions from gas appliances and looking for ways to reduce related indoor air-quality hazards.

Trumka cited indoor emissions from gas stoves that are harmful to residents of the estimated 40% of US households that have them in their kitchens as a reason they might be banned. After making that statement, Trumka was roasted by several members of Congress who declared that “unelected bureaucrats” should “not tell Americans how to cook their foods.”