The Irvine City Council voted 4–1 June 13 on a plan to incentivize all new homes and commercial buildings to be electric-powered in the city, after an earlier effort to mandate them was stymied when a federal court ruled another city in California could not ban natural gas in new construction.
City staff is now tasked to return with an ordinance in July that “incentivizes the use of all-electric equipment, or disincentivizes the use of natural gas,” in new home and commercial construction, which would need to be voted on by the council.
Councilman Mike Carrol was the sole dissenting vote.
The Irvine City Hall and Civic Center building in Irvine, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
The Ninth Circuit Court, out of San Francisco, ruled in April banning natural gas piping in newly constructed buildings was a violation of federal law in a lawsuit between the California Restaurant Association and the City of Berkeley….