Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - Part of the conceptually agreed upon New York State budget includes new rules on natural gas hookups that will make New York the first state to ban natural gas in new buildings.
New buildings under seven stories, including homes, would be required to be fully electric by 2026. Larger structures will not be allowed gas hookups after 2029.
The proposed rules will not mandate that existing homes switch over as had been previously proposed.
"The middle ground that's been reached, at least temporarily, is a bridge to what we might still have to deal with down the road. But from a practical perspective, there's just no way these mandates would have ever been able to work," said Dominic Cortese of Cortese Construction and host of the Home Improvement Hour on WBEN.
"When we have a grid that can support this, and we have the mechanics in place to have viable alternatives to natural gas, like geothermal, for example, and the funding and the cost of these more reachable to the average homeowner, then these things start to make more sense, rather than a mandate that's driven by a political agenda that has no backbone in reality."
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Gary Marchiori of Energy Mark, an energy supply and distribution firm, is among those who considered the original plan concerning.
"The concern for the homeowner would be cost of the equipment, and absolutely the cost of heating your home, electrically, versus existing systems," said Marchiori. "And they're primarily natural gas. And there's some limited use of oil to heat homes in the area."
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"As we saw last December when there's power outages, many homes would still able to heat their facilities with natural gas appliances, fireplaces, and were able to cook with natural gas appliances so they could live in their homes," he said.