Earlier this year, people like you spoke up and told Berkeley’s City Council to limit health and climate damaging pollution from buildings.

They heard you.

And on Tuesday, policy to reduce pollution from buildings is on the full Council's agenda.

Berkeley has been a leader in the movement for healthier and safer buildings for a long time, passing the first policy anywhere to keep methane gas out of new construction.

Berkeley’s policy inspired a whole movement –  and also backlash, including a lawsuit that a Southern California gas utility appears to have helped fund.¹ Eventually Berkeley’s policy was tossed out by the courts.²

But the City did not give up. City staff and the Council have been exploring other approaches, including an energy efficiency policy, called Single Margin, that favors all-electric buildings with high-efficiency appliances. They are also looking at policies that regulate pollution in the form of nitrogen oxide gasses, or NOx . NOx is produced when we burn methane in our appliances. It damages health, including causing asthma in kids. Both a Single Margin policy and an Ultra Low NOx policy with no commercial kitchen exemption will reduce use of fossil fuels and lower air pollution and greenhouse gasses.

This is a critical time for Councilors to hear that you want them to pass one or both of these policies.

Send your message now!

(1) SoCalGas Helped Bankroll Law Firm That Challenged Berkeley Natural Gas Ban
(2) Building electrification and the Berkeley decision

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