Olympia is seeking community members’ feedback on its proposed amendments to the state’s energy code to reduce fossil fuel use in new buildings in the city.
In a press release, the city said is asking Olympia residents to look into the city’s changes to the electrification program and leave their comments.
“The proposed amendments will help meet targets for greenhouse gas-emissions reductions in the 2021 Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP) developed by Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Thurston County,” Olympia explained.
There will also be an hour-long online public meeting on Wednesday, May 31, at 3 p.m. explaining the proposals.
Comments will be accepted until Friday, June 9, on the city’s Building Electrification page.
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C K
The only reason too many elitist parasites in all levels of American government want everyone to be dependent on electricity is so they can flip the switch. What happens to us when the power grid actually goes down?? For whatever reason??? Citizens best start thinking for themselves and be prepared. As a society, we've become too dependent on government and corporations as well as allowed them to rule us... enough IS enough. Taking away our options is not an option.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 Report this
Southsoundguy
Th climate mitigation plan is the cause of this nonsense. It’s just a wealth transfer scheme.
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 Report this
Yeti1981
Any ban on natural gas equipment may be subject to preemption by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which was clarified in the recent ruling at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. See CA Restaurants' Association v. City of Berkley, 2023. https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2023/04/17/21-16278.pdf
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 Report this
jimlazar
The natural gas grid is failing, while the electricity grid is thriving.
I believe that the City generally needs to do these things to achieve the carbon mitigation goals that the City has set for itself. Whether these particular proposals are perfect is a deeper question.
If you are concerned about somebody "flipping the switch" install solar and a backup battery. Or use your Ford Lightning or other EV as a backup system for your house.
In new construction, gas is already not cost-effective, because you have to pay the gas utility $11.50/month just to be connected, and new homes use so little energy than you cannot save it back with a sometimes-cheaper fuel. The code amendments that take effect July 1 will reinforce this. The City proposals go just a little bit further.
But there is an important element missing from the City proposal: they need to be requiring PSE to underground all remaining overhead distribution lines. As we become more dependent on electricity (my gas furnace won't run when the power is out), they need to make sure that storms don't result in multi-day outages. That has to be a part of the package to increase our electricity-dependence.
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 Report this
WayTooOld
@jimlazar
Thank you for the information.
Thursday, May 18, 2023 Report this
Yeti1981
It would seem that there's a bit of narrative and bias in Mr. Lazar's statement. Quite the opposite is true about the power grid. The Northwest Power Pool considers an outage risk of <5% to be safe, but the study warns that the state faces a 26% probability of an outage from insufficient generation to meet an increased load. Several folks testified to the lack of capacity of the power grid to handle the extra load of electrification at the State Building Codes Council meetings, including reps from IBEW who actually do the work on the ground. We are truly at risk of an end to a relative period of stability in our power grid since 2000.
Thursday, May 18, 2023 Report this