Proponents of using electricity instead of natural gas in Oregon have just scored a new victory.
The Oregonian reports the Ashland City Council this week voted unanimously to charge developers a carbon pollution fee for installing natural gas heating systems in new residential buildings.
Youth advocates who championed the measure and city officials said it's an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve indoor air quality in the city and change how homes are built in Ashland.
The ordinance – modeled on a similar one in Burlington, Vermont – is aimed at reducing the use of natural gas hookups and appliances, including furnaces, water heaters, stoves, clothes dryers and fireplaces, though the fee also would apply to energy systems that rely on coal, oil, propane or kerosene.
Ashland's ordinance is the first in Oregon since Eugene passed a measure two years ago that would have prohibited natural gas hookups in many new homes. Eugene later rescinded its measure after a federal appeals court ruling rejected a similar gas ban in Berkeley, California. Since then, several cities in Oregon that have adopted climate action plans have been looking to ban natural gas and provide incentives to use electricity in new construction, despite opposition from Oregon's natural gas industry and the federal lawsuit filed in California.
To pass the ordinance, youths in Ashland organized rallies, gathered hundreds of testimonies and signatures from residents and joined the city's Climate and Energy Policy Advisory Committee to work on the measure. The city also hired a lawyer to come up with an ordinance that could stand legal muster in court. The Ashland ordinance goes into effect January 1, 2026.
