Following San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley, the City of Oakland has voted to ban natural gas in all new construction.
The Oakland City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to restrict gas in new apartments and commercial buildings. The reason is while natural gas is cleaner burning, it's still a fossil fuel.
"Just residential natural gas has more emissions than all of the cars and light-duty trucks in the Bay Area combined," said Greg Nudd, Deputy Air Pollution Control Officers with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Nudd told KCBS Radio there is no difference in the cost between building an apartment that is all electric versus electric and natural gas.
"Over time, the total cost goes down because electricity is cheaper than natural gas and we expect natural gas costs will increase over time," he added.
The BAAQMD is considering rules to ban natural gas with new construction and looking at ways to phase out existing gas appliances. The California Restaurant Association is suing the City of Berkeley in federal court over its natural gas ban, claiming it will increase costs for businesses.
