Biss: Natural gas phaseout key step toward goal 'where nobody is ... - Evanston RoundTable

Biss: Natural gas phaseout key step toward goal 'where nobody is burning any fossil fuels' - Evanston RoundTable

Effectiveness, grid capacity and future expansions were leading questions at a town hall Wednesday evening on an incoming proposal to phase out new natural gas connections in new Evanston buildings.

Around 30 people attended the meeting at the Morton Civic Center as part of public engagement for the city’s Building Electrification Working Group. The group is working with city staff to develop an ordinance banning natural gas connections in new construction projects based on a referral from Mayor Daniel Biss.

During his introductory remarks, Biss stressed this ban would not require existing buildings to convert from gas to electricity. He said starting a natural gas phaseout by targeting new buildings is instead an “important” but “manageable” step toward phasing out fossil fuels entirely over the coming years.

“[It’s] a really, really critical step in educating all of us to get to the absolutely necessary, eventual goal, where nobody is burning any fossil fuels for any purpose whatsoever,” Biss said.

Natural gas is often used for heating and cooking in both residential and commercial buildings, making it a substantial driver of greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainability Specialist Ben Martin told attendees that natural gas use accounted for 41% of the city’s 2021 emissions, and added that unlike electricity, it is impossible to reduce natural gas to zero emissions in generation or use.

Some states and cities have already banned natural gas in new construction, including New York state, Denver and nearby Oak Park. These laws and others vary widely on factors such as whether the ban applies to expansions of existing buildings, whether certain buildings are exempt, how quickly the ban is implemented and more.

Cara Pratt, the city’s sustainability and resilience manager, said all of these factors are open decisions for Evanston’s proposal while it is in development. She encouraged attendees to write feedback on the ordinance and building electrification in general using sticky notes and posters around the room, and said residents can still answer the city’s online survey.

During the town hall’s Q&A session, one attendee asked whether the ordinance would be paired with other efficiency standards such as prohibiting baseboard heating, which is less energy efficient than natural gas heating and could drive an increase in emissions if adopted as a replacement.

Alison Lindburg, the buildings director of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and an adviser to the ordinance’s development, responded that such efficiency measures could be passed concurrent with the natural gas phaseout, and pointed out that Oak Park recently adopted a new energy code for its buildings.

Another attendee asked whether the city’s power grid could handle the increased demand of all-electric buildings, and whether power utility ComEd will fund infrastructure upgrades to improve capacity. Pratt said city staff share these concerns and are in “ongoing” conversation with ComEd about improving Evanston’s grid as part of the city’s partnership with the utility.

And although the proposal won’t address natural gas connections in existing buildings, several people expressed concerns about the potential for an expensive mandated phaseout in all buildings in the future. Lindburg said affordable housing owners in particular could benefit from federal grants aimed at retrofitting HUD-eligible properties for improved energy efficiency, and added that these funds make it an opportune time for Evanston to adopt electrification policies.

“There is a lot of federal money coming down to help with efficiency and to help with decarbonisation,” Lindburg said. “If there’s ever a time to be doing this, this is probably it.”

City staff and the working group will continue collecting feedback through the online survey and stakeholder meetings as they begin drafting the ordinance, according to Pratt. She said the final ordinance will be introduced to City Council in mid to late November.