On December 7th, Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved an ordinance requiring that all new buildings within city limits be constructed all-electric. With this vote, Los Angeles became the largest city in the state and the second largest city in the country to mandate a definitive shift away from fossil fuels in new construction.
Throughout the process, Los Angeles laid groundwork to ensure decarbonized buildings were responsive to needs from impacted residents. Community-driven research on how the energy transition would affect workers, renters, and low-income residents made it possible for local advocates to define a set of energy justice priorities, which framed the official launch of a building decarbonization policy process.
New buildings of all types are covered by this mandate, and although limited exemptions are provided for specific end uses like cooking in commercial facilities and process gas for certain industrial uses, any construction that uses an exemption must ensure that it is electric-ready for future energy transitions.
For more information on this story, read the full article by Olivia Walker and Megan Ross on NRDC.
