San Jose accelerated its rush toward all-electric infrastructure with the City Council vote on Tuesday to ban natural gas in new commercial buildings constructed after December 2021.
The city had already banned natural gas in new residential buildings, including condos and single-family homes. But the policy had not affected commercial buildings like retail and office spaces — until now.
The pandemic has not slowed the Bay Area’s embrace of climate-friendly electric infrastructure. San Jose’s vote came the same day that Oakland’s City Council also voted to ban natural gas in newly constructed commercial buildings, along with new apartments. And last month, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban gas appliances in new buildings, both commercial and residential.
San Jose’s newly expanded policy, which passed 8-3, is not a complete ban on natural gas in new commercial buildings. Exemptions are available for new hospitals, energy plants, some food preparation facilities and manufacturing facilities.
In addition, buildings can continue to use natural gas on-site to provide backup electric power as needed — a reflection of officials’ awareness that power outages, such as those aimed at preventing wildfires, can hurt facilities that are entirely reliant on electricity. Some devices that make this possible, fuel cells, are made by the San Jose company Bloom Energy.
Bloom Energy, which specializes in fuel cell technology powered by natural gas, pushed for that exemption for on-site backup power because it views natural gas as “an enabler of a renewable future,” according to Steven Lamm, director of sustainability for the company. It is cleaner than diesel, a common source of backup power when the grid fails, company representatives said.
However, City Council members Pam Foley, Raul Peralez and Magdalena Carrasco voted against the ban because they think the exemption for fuel cells holds back the city’s progress toward an all-electric, decarbonized future.
While Peralez acknowledged that Bloom Energy’s trajectory is “inventive,” he noted that the natural gas that powers a fuel cell is often produced by the controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing, which he opposes.
Opponents of the exemption said that while diesel, another common source of backup power in outages, is problematic, another option for backup is batteries. And technology may yet provide other options.
Foley said that the fuel cell exemption keeps San Jose from being “laser-focused” on an all-electric reality, free of fracked gas.
“Every exemption that we put in place is more greenhouse gases that are going into the air and polluting our environment and destroying our atmosphere,” Foley said in a telephone interview. “The reason I voted against the exemptions was because I did not feel that it preserves the environment for the future for our children and our children's children.”
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo voted for the measure on Tuesday because it provides “options for those who critically need them,” like hospitals, whenever PG&E’s power grid has rolling blackouts.
Bryan Mena is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bryan.mena@sfchronicle.com
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