Gas bills might soon be a thing of the past for many in Irvine. Come July, most new buildings in the city have to be all-electric, making Irvine the first city in Orange County to make the transition away from fossil fuels in new construction.
And climate activists are welcoming the move.
“This vote marks a shift towards a much more serious commitment to climate action by the city of Irvine,” said Ayn Craciun, an Orange County policy manager at the watchdog Climate Action Campaign.
More than 70 cities across California, including Los Angeles, have adopted similar mandates reflecting a statewide trend of moving away from gas, according to city documents.
The decision to go all-electric came during a City Council meeting late last month with a unanimous vote. (Councilmember Mike Carroll was not present at the meeting.)
As part of Irvine’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, the goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. And the new ordinance will help the city achieve that, city staffers said at the March 28 meeting, because 33% of Irvine’s greenhouse gas emissions are from buildings.
However, Irvine’s new ordinance has some exemptions: new commercial restaurants with traditional cooking methods that utilize an open flame, like Korean barbeque restaurants where patrons grill meat at the table. Other exceptions include new multi-family homes’ water heating systems and new buildings with unique circumstances where complying with the ordinance is infeasible.
“Whether we are talking about Korean barbeque, Indian tandoori ovens or cooking with woks that have been used in Chinese cuisines for centuries, it is extremely important that we keep and maintain our traditional cooking practices,” said Councilmember Tammy Kim, who requested the exemption. “This is really about protecting our culture, heritage and history, and I refuse to take that away from our Asian communities.”
With Asian Americans making up the largest ethnic group in Irvine,…
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