Bloomberg News reports that on Thursday, California regulators were found taking away an incentive for the builders to use natural gas in the commercial and new home constructions that will be done in the future. This move comes as the state attempts to foster the reduction of greenhouse gases and attain its climate goals.
It is also being decided that customers will not be levied any part of the cost in utilities for providing a new natural gas line for the commercial and residential constructions beginning in July, as per a decision taken by the California Public Utilities Commission. The regulation has been implemented to dissuade or discourage the use of gas in buildings, and this is because it is seen that gas accounts for about 10% of the overall emissions of the state.
The first state to put an end to these payments in California. The same was passed on as subsidies to the builders. Deciding upon this stance will help the ratepayers save approximately $164 million annually, as revealed by the commission.
This move comes as a part of a series of actions taken of late by the United States’ most populated state to steer the economy away from using fossil fuels. Lawmakers approved a wide array of climate measures in the past month, which codifies the need for the state to be carbon neutral by 2045.
Bloomberg News reports that aside from the measures mentioned above, the state’s air regulators recently took a decision wherein the sale of cars powered by gasoline would be banned by the year 2035.
Almost 50 cities and the town of California, including San Francisco, have passed norms that will ban or discourage using gas in new construction projects.
The big investor-owned utilities of the state, which include the likes of Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co., and PG&E Corp, did not approve of the new measures and were found to oppose the decision to eliminate the subsidies related to gas lines for the non-residential customers, stating that this move would surge the prices for few industries that do not have any alternative option for low carbon energy resources. It was observed that the utilities called for a phase-in approach to remove subsidies for the new home gas projects.
The commission revealed that these changes would bring the state nearer to attaining its objective of meeting carbon reduction goals, enhancing the quality of life, and making customers healthy.
