From the DAILY CALL
Nick Pope
Contributor
California’s deep blue cities are paying taxes on larger buildings that use natural gas after a federal court rejected the city’s attempt to ban gas hookups and stoves, according to The Daily Californian.
The city council of Berkeley, California, voted on July 30 to put an initiative on the upcoming ballot that would impose a tax on buildings that are 15,000 square feet or larger and use natural gas, according to The Daily Californian. In 2019, the city tried to outright ban the construction of new buildings with natural gas connections, and gas stoves by extension, but the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned the ban in April 2023 after a legal challenge against the policy. by the California Restaurant Association.
The official title for the ballot measure is “Fossil Fuel Emission Tax Buildings,” and it will affect more than 600 buildings in Berkeley if a simple majority of voters approve it at the ballot box, according to The Daily Californian. Supporters of the measure call it an important step in the fight against climate change, but opponents in the food service industry and others worry the tax will burden businesses and force commerce out of the city. (RELATED: ‘No Sense’: Manchin Rips Biden Admin Over Gas Stove, ‘Crazy’ ESG Investing)
“The gas equipment I bought is intended for decades. My intention to develop a business in Berkeley is to be here for decades,” Emily Winston, owner of a Berkeley bagel shop called Boichik Bagels, wrote in a letter to the city council, per The Daily Californian. “But if I’m going to socks with a penalty of almost half a million dollars a year, I have to be serious to move.”
Other organizations, including nonprofits, are also concerned about the possibility of new taxes driving up operating costs, according to The Daily Californian.
The David Brower Center – a non-profit organization that works to advance the environmental movement – wrote to the city council to warn that the policy will create “significant costs for the building, especially since since the beginning of the pandemic, (already) it has been running breakeven or at a loss, ” according to The Daily Californian. The Berkeley Repertory Theater, a local performing arts venue, also wrote the city council to express concern that “while we support electrification, this wonderful ballot measure with immediate implementation would be very dangerous to our struggling organization.”
Berkeley voters will also decide whether to pass the so-called “Healthy New Buildings” ordinance, which would ban the sale and installation of appliances like gas stoves and furnaces that produce nitrogen oxides starting in 2027 if passed, according to The Daily. Californian.
“I do not have a position on the appropriate initiative for the election. The council is obliged to put the measure on the ballot if it is considered to have received valid signatures to do so. I am neither a supporter nor an opponent of this initiative, “Igor Tregub, who sits on the city council Berkeley, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “For a few weeks, after the measure was certified for the ballot and my own election (which was certified at the same time), my office tried to find common ground between supporters and opponents to make it more balanced. Alternative measures could be created and placed on the ballot by the action of City Council Although many pitches were applied to find agreement between various stakeholders, we eventually ran out of time before a consensus could be reached.
The Biden administration is also pursuing a building decarbonization agenda that uses more electricity to heat appliances and buildings instead of fossil fuels. The government has banned the use of natural gas in new federal buildings from 2030, is spending a lot of money to help state and municipal governments develop green building codes and define zero-emission buildings as those that are “free of on-site emissions from energy use” and “powered only by energy clean” in June.
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg News in January 2023 that “any option is on the table” regarding the ban on gas stoves and that “products that cannot be made safe can be banned.” Although the Department of Energy (DOE) insisted that the suggestion that the government wants to ban gas stoves is “wrong information.”
Officials from the Biden Justice Department and the DOE primarily filed a June 2023 amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit asking the court to reverse its decision that overturned the 2019 Berkeley gas hookups ban, but the court decided in January that it would not review the decision.
“The city of Berkeley, whose natural gas ban was recently struck down by the 9th Circuit, now wants to try to impose a tax on facilities that use natural gas,” Steve Everley, senior director at FTI Consulting, wrote in a post Wednesday. for X, referencing The Daily Californian’s story. “But remember, no one is trying to ban gas stoves.”
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín and City Council Members Rashi Kesarwani, Terry Taplin, Ben Bartlett, Sophie Hahn, Susan Wengraf, Cecilia Lunaparra and Mark Humbert did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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