By Alec Connon (350 Seattle) & Brittney Bush Bollay (Sierra Club Seattle Group)
The next big climate fight is close to home.
In Washington State our homes and our buildings are the single fastest-growing source of climate pollution, up by more than 50 percent since 1990. In Seattle, more than one-third of our total greenhouse gas pollution comes from our homes and our buildings.
The vast majority of the greenhouse gases from our buildings come from the fracked gas that powers our household appliances like stoves, furnaces and water heaters. Luckily, electric appliances ― that is electric stoves, furnaces, and water heaters ― have made huge improvements in efficiency, cost, and reliability in recent years and can now do the same job as gas, except without the climate devastation, the water pollution and the environmental injustice. The market itself has already recognized these trends ― two-thirds of all new residential construction in Seattle last year was connected only to the city’s carbon-neutral electricity grid for its heating, not climate-wrecking fossil fuels like fracked gas. That’s right: two in every three new buildings in Seattle are already completely free of fossil fuels.
So that raises a question. Why is one in every three new buildings in Seattle still being hooked up to fossil fuels?
The science is clear. Just about every study on meeting our climate goals - from the United Nations to the Obama Administration to Gov. Jay Inslee's - calls for moving our homes, schools, and businesses away from fracked gas as a heating source, and towards electricity. Eliminating climate pollution from our homes and our buildings is going to be a long process, but the first step to solving a problem is to stop making it even worse.
That’s why, since July, 17 different cities and counties in California have passed measures that push new construction towards cleaner, safer electric appliances. Concerned about aging gas pipelines and recent deadly explosions, cities in Massachusetts are following suit.
Washington cities can continue its legacy of climate leadership by taking up this next chapter of the climate fight. In Seattle, stakeholders including Council members, labor leaders, housing developers, architects, business owners and environmental justice groups are currently discussing the best way to move this policy forward. Having labor at the table is especially vital. If we care in any way about a just transition, we need to make sure that the workers impacted by this policy are taken care of.
But to be clear― passing the Healthy Homes, Healthy Buildings policy is something that we can and must do. Even setting aside the significant climate benefits, there are numerous reasons to ensure that our buildings are free from climate-wrecking fossil fuels. Here’s just a few:
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Improved Public Health: Gas appliances release dangerous pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide and ultrafine particles, leading to air pollution levels in some homes that would be illegal if measured outside. Having a gas stove in the home increases the chances of children developing asthma by 42 percent, according to an analysis of 41 academic studies. These health issues disproportionately impact communities of color in Washington State who are already more likely to live in areas with higher levels of outdoor air pollution.
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Less risk of explosions/leaks: Gas appliances increase the risk of fires through small methane leaks from pipes, meters, and appliances in the home, and that risk is only magnified in earthquake-prone cities like Seattle. Communities around the country have seen major gas explosions in recent years, including right here in Seattle. In 2013 an improperly decommissioned Puget Sound Energy gas line caused a massive explosion in the Greenwood neighborhood, closing multiple neighborhood businesses for a year or more. Last month, three PSE workers were injured in a gas explosion in North Seattle. Just days later, a major gas leak in Seattle’s U District resulted in a 12-block evacuation. On average, over the past 3 years (2016-2018) a gas pipeline incident killed someone, sent someone to the hospital, and/or caused a fire and/or explosion once every 4 days nationwide.
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The private sector is already doing this. Healthy Homes, Healthy Buildings would simply accelerate trends that we’re already seeing in the market. According to the King County Assessor’s office, two-thirds of new construction in Seattle last year was built without being hooked-up to fossil fuels. Why is this happening?. Research shows that in most new home construction, going all-electric is more affordable than making buildings dependent on gas, which has fuel costs that can fluctuate and have nowhere to go but up in the coming decades. Seattle’s gas provider Puget Sound Energy recently increased its gas rates by 14 percent, largely due to a 2018 gas pipeline explosion.
There’s no path to a climate-stable future that doesn’t include getting our homes, schools and businesses off fracked gas. We hope you’ll join us in this next chapter of the climate fight.