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Vancouver City Council voted Wednesday night to reinstate a ban on natural gas in new buildings, reversing a decision it made in July.
The 6-5 vote on the bylaw amendment “restores the option for new home construction to use natural gas for heating and hot water,” the Vancouver Sun reports, even after Sustainability Manager Brad Badelt warned the decision “will move us back” on climate targets the city was already on track to miss.
Quotes from the article:
- “Such a significant rollback of the city’s climate policies shouldn’t have been introduced on the fly.”
- “Building all-electric is one of the easiest and most affordable actions that we can take to protect communities from increasing climate disasters.”
- The “surprise amendment” was “akin to voluntarily returning to lead paint or materials containing asbestos because they’re cheaper to source, or declining to install fire escapes on buildings in order to save developers money”
Read the full post at The Energy Mix.
