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Cities across the US are transitioning their buildings to clean energy, which would mean banning natural gas in new construction and promoting electric appliances. But the question remains whether or not infrastructure — foundational and historic — is ready to handle such a demand for electricity.
“It’s a perfect violent storm as far as meeting the demand that we’re going to have,” Michael Johnston, executive director of codes and standards for the National Electrical Contractors Association, told the Times. “It’s no small problem.”
Rising Demand
San Jose, California, is the largest local government in the country to ban natural gas in new buildings and epitomizes the struggle that many cities may face in transitioning to electric power. According to Rewiring America, if every household in San Jose switched from gas-powered cars and appliances to electric ones, the city would triple its electricity needs.
And it’s not just switching to EVs and electric stoves that are fueling heightened energy demands. Increasing climate change impacts like hurricanes, erratic winter weather, heatwaves, and more are also driving residents to use more electricity and crank up the heat or AC. In Texas, high power demand on an independent grid paired with an overreliance on natural gas, left 70% of residents on the state’s primary power grid without electricity during a winter storm earlier this year. In the West, increasing heatwaves are also increasing the risk and occurrence of blackouts.
San Jose’s mayor, Sam Liccardo, saysthat his city is making moves to achieve its emissions goals, “the question is whether there will be a grid-ready when we get there.”
As more people around the nation are taking to the roads and skies for their vaccinated vacations, one car rental company is making it easier for folks to not only travel in style, but travel green. Hertz has announced that it will be purchasing 100,000 Tesla electric vehicles by the end of 2022 alongside an […]
By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Last year, the average American household experienced eight hours without power, as storms hammered electrical systems built with less erratic climate conditions in mind. That average outage time is double what it was five years ago. But only looking at the average obscures the experience of people who lived […]
We sat down with Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) to talk about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) or “Hot FERC Summer,” as we like to call it. According to Rep. Casten, though FERC is often thought of as “a sleepy agency that is, frankly, kind of nerdy” — it can be a powerful force to […]
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