Buildings
Washington State Could Lead the Nation on Building Electrification Codes
In the unglamorous pages of local and state law books lies one of the most powerful tools for reducing carbon emissions: building codes. Local governments in Washington State, including Seattle, Tacoma, and Shoreline, have already put this powerful tool to use, amending their building codes to restrict the installation…
A Landmark Year for Building Electrification
As the climate, health, and financial imperative to eliminate fossil fuels from buildings becomes more urgent, states and cities across the country are stepping up to tackle this challenging sector. This year was an exciting one for the effort to electrify buildings in the United States, from city building codes…
Stopping Gas Hookups in New Construction in NYC Would Cut Carbon and Costs
The New York City Council is on the cusp of passing a landmark bill (Introduction 2317) that requires new buildings to be free of fossil fuels, including natural gas. The bill’s passage would represent a landmark moment for the electrification movement: the first all-electric new construction policy in America’s…
Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Are Easier Than They Sound
Grid-interactive efficient buildings are a big deal with an equally big name. GEBs, for short, were one of the focal areas in a slate of new building-focused programs announced by the Biden administration earlier this year. Those announcements coincided with the release of a US Department of Energy (DOE)…
Reality Check: The Myth of Stable and Affordable Natural Gas Prices
This winter, natural gas prices are spiking across the United States and are expected to cause high heating bills throughout the heating season. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that residential gas prices will be 27 percent higher than last winter on average, while electricity prices will…