New York to ban natural gas, including stoves, in new buildings
This regulation feels quite frustrating to me, and several comments in this thread illustrate why.<p>This change is being promoted as a critical step in the fight against climate change. (See most news articles over the past two years covering this.)<p>But when you dig into the details, it seems like the regulation may not have much effect on climate change at all.<p>When you point this out to advocates, you&#x27;ll get an <i>entirely different</i> argument, this time about personal health. I don&#x27;t think the personal health justification stands up to scrutiny, for two reasons:<p>1. If you buy a home and want it to have a gas stove, why is it the state government&#x27;s place to say that you can&#x27;t do so, for your own health?<p>2. According to research I&#x27;ve seen, vented fume hoods seem to mitigate any health effects; if that&#x27;s true and a state government really wants to intervene, why not spread awareness or perhaps mandate that newly constructed buildings with gas lines also have venting for fume hoods? (Incidentally, requiring venting for fume hoods would be a nice baseline for New York.)<p>I haven&#x27;t seen any well-reasoned debate on this topic, possibly because the rationale for the regulation is, in fact, incoherent.