By David R. Baker, Mark Chediak, and Bloomberg, Fortune, July 17, 2019.
The fight to kick natural gas out of homes and businesses is intensifying.
In a vote late Tuesday, Berkeley—the city near San Francisco long known for its progressive politics—banned the use of the heating fuel in most new buildings. Environmentalists are hailing it as the first city to enact such a prohibition, opening up a new front in the battle against global warming.
The move comes as lawmakers and environmental groups from the U.K. to the Netherlands to New York are trying to kick natural gas—once seen as a “bridge fuel” to a low-carbon future—out of the home heating and cooking business. In California alone, more than 50 cities are considering banning the fuel’s use in all new construction, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.