Ignoring Reality: California Bans Gas-Powered Home Heaters By 2030

September 26, 2022

The state of California is on a ridiculous roll. Last week, the California Air Resources Board voted to ban gas space and water heaters by the year 2030. These are the same unelected state regulators who last month voted to ban the sale of gas-powered cars in the state. 

The Wall Street Journal editorial board blasted the move writing, “Come 2030, homeowners and businesses whose furnaces break down could be forced into expensive electrical retrofits. If you like your gas furnace, sorry, you won’t be able to replace it with a new one. The mandate comes as electricity rates in the state surge, and the grid wobbles amid a shortage of baseload power when the sun goes down.

“Californians were told during a heat wave a couple of weeks ago not to run large appliances or charge electric cars in peak hours. Soon blackout warnings could happen during the winter. Will Californians have to avoid running hot water and heating their homes too? Even in California, it can get chilly when the sun goes down.”

These regulators must think electricity magically comes from the outlet on the wall. Soon they will force all home heating and transportation onto the electric grid. The results could be disastrous. To make matters worse, they are doubling down and voted to force all trucks off of diesel and gasoline as well.

The Journal continues, “These grid strains could be exacerbated by the Air Resources Board’s proposal to ban the sale of diesel and gas trucks by 2040. Such large fleet operators as Amazon and UPS would have to start making the transition to an all-electric fleet in a few years. Yet the charging network and technology needed to meet the mandate is all but nonexistent. Long-haul diesel trucks can go some 1,000 miles before needing to fill up, which takes 10 to 15 minutes. But electric models have a much shorter range, and ‘even the fastest available chargers right now are going to take three to four hours to charge up to a full state,’ California Trucking Association senior vice president Chris Shimoda told the local news outlet LAist.”

This liberal electric dream will quickly become a California consumer nightmare.