Manufacturers of gas-powered furnaces and water heaters will not be urged — yet — to sell more electric appliances over the coming years, with proposed new guidance from the region’s air quality regulator being rejected by its governing board on Friday, June 6.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District, the air quality regulator for 17 million residents in large swaths of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, rejected two rules aimed at increasing the prevalence of electric heating systems on the market on Friday.
The Governing Board, though, passed a motion to send the item back to committee for further consideration and reevaluation — though the proposal will likely not come before the board again this year, AQMD staff said.
The rejection of the amendments to the two rules — which were initially approved in 1978 — would have implemented an option for manufacturers to sell more zero-emission furnaces and water heaters, or pay mitigation fees if they opt to sell natural gas-powered appliances instead.
Starting in 2030, manufacturers would have been asked to hit a zero-emission appliance sales target of 30%, the air district’s staff report for the Friday hearing said. That target would have gradually risen each year, with a target of 90% by 2036.
The aim of the proposed rules, according to the AQMD, was to eliminate nitrogen oxides pollution in the L.A. Basin, which is one of the leading causes of smog formation in the region.
“Ground level or ‘bad’ ozone is not emitted directly into the air,” according to the EPA, “but is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight.”
Ozone pollution has myriad health impacts. It can cause difficulty breathing and shortness of breath, inflame and damage airways, aggravate lung diseases, worsen asthma, and cause chronic disease in the lungs, the EPA said.
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