California Increases the Cost of Living in the State Even More with Plan to Make New Buildings Greener

August 30, 2021

This month, California state regulators updated California’s building code to require builders to include solar panels and battery storage and the wiring needed to switch from heaters that burn natural gas to heat pumps that run on electricity in new homes and commercial buildings. The move is one of the most sweeping single environmental updates to building codes ever attempted by a government agency, according to energy experts.

California prides itself on being the most progressive state on energy policy, but some energy and building experts warn the state may be taking on too much, too quickly and focusing on the wrong target. As the New York Times reports:

Their biggest fear is that these new requirements will drive up the state’s already high construction costs, putting new homes out of reach of middle- and lower-income families that cannot as easily afford the higher upfront costs of cleaner energy and heating equipment, which typically pays for itself over years through savings on monthly utility bills.

The median single-family home in California sells for more than $800,000 compared to about $360,000 nationwide, and businesses pay more for rent in cities like San Francisco and San Jose than anywhere else in the country. …

Adding solar panels and a battery to a new home can raise its cost by $20,000 or more. While that might not matter to somebody buying a million-dollar property, it could be a burden on a family borrowing a few hundred thousand dollars to buy a home.

The state’s new building code is expected to go into effect in 2023 and is aimed to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of fossil fuels like natural gas and replace them with renewable sources like solar panels, wind turbines, and hydroelectric dams.

Power The Future previously discussed in a study, “… that, between 2011 and 2019, ‘the average price of electricity in California for all users—industrial, commercial, and residential—jumped by nearly 30 percent, or more than seven times the rate of increase seen in the rest of the U.S.’” The increase in household energy bills in California is directly attributed to the Green New Deal policies elected officials in their state have pushed onto their constituents.

The cost of living in California is dramatically higher than the rest of the U.S. If coastal liberal elites are aiming to kick out middle and lower-income families by making it impossible to live in the state, they hit the nail on the head.