California Can’t Wait on All-Electric New Building Code

RMI urges the California Energy Commission (CEC) to implement a statewide all-electric new building code in the 2022 cycle. The document asserts that delaying this requirement until the 2025 cycle would result in 3 million additional metric tons of carbon emissions by 2030 and over $1 billion in unnecessary spending on gas infrastructure. It highlights that buildings are the primary source of premature deaths from air pollution in California, causing over 6,000 deaths annually, and that an all-electric code would support public health, especially in disadvantaged communities.

• Delaying the all-electric building code update from the 2022 cycle to the next cycle would lead to an additional three million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2030, which is equivalent to adding 650,000 cars to the road for one year.
• A three-year delay in implementing the all-electric requirement would cause more than $1 billion in unnecessary expenditures on new gas connection infrastructure, much of which is at risk of becoming obsolete.
• Buildings are the leading cause of premature deaths from air pollution in California, resulting in more than 6,000 premature deaths every year.
• Approximately 12 million people in California are regularly exposed to nitrogen oxide levels from home gas appliances that would exceed federal health-based standards if they were found outdoors.
• California is currently not on track to achieve its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target of a 40 percent reduction below 1990 levels, with direct emissions from buildings increasing over the last three years primarily due to gas use.

APA

RMI (2020). California Can’t Wait on All-Electric New Building Code. https://rmi.org/resources/california-cant-wait-on-all-electric-new-building-code/

Chicago

RMI. California Can’t Wait on All-Electric New Building Code. 2020. https://rmi.org/resources/california-cant-wait-on-all-electric-new-building-code/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=RMI |title=California Can’t Wait on All-Electric New Building Code |date=28 July 2020 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/california-cant-wait-on-all-electric-new-building-code/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{rmi2020california, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{California Can’t Wait on All-Electric New Building Code}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2020}, month = jul, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/california-cant-wait-on-all-electric-new-building-code/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }