Buildings
California Should Go All-Electric in New Construction—State’s Largest Utility Agrees
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), California’s largest combined gas and electric utility, became the first dual-fuel utility in the country to formally support ending new gas hookups in buildings. In a letter to the California Energy Commission (CEC) this week, PG&E endorsed efficient, all-electric new construction as part of…
Stimulus, Clean Energy, and Changing the Status Quo
The status quo no longer works—for health, for equity, or for climate. In just three months, we lost over 100,000 Americans to COVID-19. Over 40 million Americans have lost their jobs, putting the US unemployment rate at levels not seen since World War II. We must forge a positive direction…
It’s Time to Incentivize Residential Heat Pumps
The United States has made significant progress decarbonizing the electricity sector in recent years, and as the grid continues to get cleaner, cities and states are turning their attention to other sectors, such as direct fossil fuel use in buildings. The use of gas or fuel oil for heating, hot…
New Resources for Cities to Unlock Housing Improvements
As we all spend significantly more time inside our homes during COVID-19 shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders, understanding how our homes perform (and the implications for affordability, comfort, and health) has arguably never been more important. And yet in most parts of the country, the status-quo is that residents…
Implementing Life Cycle Carbon Emissions Standards in Urban Development
The construction and operation of buildings account for nearly 40 percent of global CO2 emissions. As the urgency of the climate challenge increases, efforts to address carbon emissions in the buildings and construction sector is shifting from a focus almost exclusively on operations to the full life cycle of…