![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
31-07-2022, 03:02 PM
Alexander C. Kaufman
Jul 30, 2022, 08:00 AM EDT
Updated 9 hours ago
...... Alex Ramel ...... who previously worked on energy policy, decided he’d carve out a lane for himself by taking on one of the tougher challenges facing cities and states: slashing the 13% of U.S. emissions that come from heating buildings with fossil fuels and cooking with gas.
Ramel passed legislation requiring state-owned facilities to adopt electric heating, and proposed bills to increase rebates for ratepayers who swap oil or gas heating for electric heat pumps and force gas utilities to come up with public plans to quit fossil fuels. He championed building codes mandating electric heating in new commercial buildings.
......
“I had some angry gas industry lobbyists come to my office the first year and try to explain things to the new kid,” Ramel, 44, said in a phone interview. “Then I started hearing rumors that the gas industry was reaching out to folks in the district, asking if there was someone who could run against me.”
The industry found its candidate in Trevor Smith, the ambitious and well-connected business agent at a local union representing about 1,300 gas and construction workers. And it has started spending the kind of money rarely seen in state-level races like this
......
Since the start of July, the latter PAC has spent over US$82,000 on advertisements for Smith’s campaign.
......
More money appears to be in the pipeline. Citizens For Legislative Accountability is part of a network of fossil fuel-linked PACs called Washington Enterprise, according to the Washington Observer, which first reported the surge in political spending in the race. Last month, Marathon Petroleum, which owns one of the two refineries in Ramel’s district, donated another US$150,000 to Enterprise Washington.
......
The TV, newspaper and online ads link Ramel’s record of promoting electrification with the high gasoline prices stirring outrage among drivers across the country. It’s misleading ― automobile gasoline and natural gas are different fuels entirely
......
Electric heating is, in most cases, far more efficient than fuel heating, meaning that even if the power running a heat pump comes from a fossil-fueled generator, the process uses less energy than the average furnace burning oil or gas. Because methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, traps up to 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide during the first two decades it circulates in the atmosphere, its continued use at current levels threatens to push global warming over the edge. The network of pipelines and drilling rigs that feed the gas system frequently leaks.
......
There are health benefits, too. The gas that burns blue under cooking pans laces indoor air with tiny, disease-causing particles.
......
gas and building groups appealed to the ICC to overturn measures mandating the circuitry for electric appliances and car chargers. Long accused of being deferential to industry, the ICC granted the appeals and struck the codes. It then went a step further, revoking governments’ right to vote on all future energy codes, eliminating what little advantage public officials enjoyed over corporations in the process.
......
At least 20 Republican-controlled states, meanwhile, have enacted laws prohibiting cities and towns from banning gas since 2019
......
In states Democrats rule, unions have formed the spear tip of the industry’s fight against electrification.
......
The question of what to do with fossil fuel infrastructure and the workers who service it has long dogged decarbonization. In the early 2000s, auto manufacturers and oil companies promoted hydrogen fuel cells as their preferred alternative to electric vehicles, because hydrogen could use existing pipeline infrastructure and be sold at the pump like gasoline. The effort, for a number of reasons, failed ― unless, as some activists have accused, the industry promoted hydrogen fuel cells to delay the electric vehicle revolution. Studies now show hydrogen is unlikely to play a big role in automobiles, yet it held back battery-powered vehicles from going mainstream for years.
......
Meanwhile, Ramel said he has visited close to 2,000 households across the largely blue district and senses that voters are more concerned about local issues like improved ferry service than broader national debates over energy. Voters contributed nearly US$30,000 in recent weeks after the campaign sent out fliers warning about the “outside money” warping the race.
Much better to read full report at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/washingto...83766ccad2
Jul 30, 2022, 08:00 AM EDT
Updated 9 hours ago
...... Alex Ramel ...... who previously worked on energy policy, decided he’d carve out a lane for himself by taking on one of the tougher challenges facing cities and states: slashing the 13% of U.S. emissions that come from heating buildings with fossil fuels and cooking with gas.
Ramel passed legislation requiring state-owned facilities to adopt electric heating, and proposed bills to increase rebates for ratepayers who swap oil or gas heating for electric heat pumps and force gas utilities to come up with public plans to quit fossil fuels. He championed building codes mandating electric heating in new commercial buildings.
......
“I had some angry gas industry lobbyists come to my office the first year and try to explain things to the new kid,” Ramel, 44, said in a phone interview. “Then I started hearing rumors that the gas industry was reaching out to folks in the district, asking if there was someone who could run against me.”
The industry found its candidate in Trevor Smith, the ambitious and well-connected business agent at a local union representing about 1,300 gas and construction workers. And it has started spending the kind of money rarely seen in state-level races like this
......
Since the start of July, the latter PAC has spent over US$82,000 on advertisements for Smith’s campaign.
......
More money appears to be in the pipeline. Citizens For Legislative Accountability is part of a network of fossil fuel-linked PACs called Washington Enterprise, according to the Washington Observer, which first reported the surge in political spending in the race. Last month, Marathon Petroleum, which owns one of the two refineries in Ramel’s district, donated another US$150,000 to Enterprise Washington.
......
The TV, newspaper and online ads link Ramel’s record of promoting electrification with the high gasoline prices stirring outrage among drivers across the country. It’s misleading ― automobile gasoline and natural gas are different fuels entirely
......
Electric heating is, in most cases, far more efficient than fuel heating, meaning that even if the power running a heat pump comes from a fossil-fueled generator, the process uses less energy than the average furnace burning oil or gas. Because methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, traps up to 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide during the first two decades it circulates in the atmosphere, its continued use at current levels threatens to push global warming over the edge. The network of pipelines and drilling rigs that feed the gas system frequently leaks.
......
There are health benefits, too. The gas that burns blue under cooking pans laces indoor air with tiny, disease-causing particles.
......
gas and building groups appealed to the ICC to overturn measures mandating the circuitry for electric appliances and car chargers. Long accused of being deferential to industry, the ICC granted the appeals and struck the codes. It then went a step further, revoking governments’ right to vote on all future energy codes, eliminating what little advantage public officials enjoyed over corporations in the process.
......
At least 20 Republican-controlled states, meanwhile, have enacted laws prohibiting cities and towns from banning gas since 2019
......
In states Democrats rule, unions have formed the spear tip of the industry’s fight against electrification.
......
The question of what to do with fossil fuel infrastructure and the workers who service it has long dogged decarbonization. In the early 2000s, auto manufacturers and oil companies promoted hydrogen fuel cells as their preferred alternative to electric vehicles, because hydrogen could use existing pipeline infrastructure and be sold at the pump like gasoline. The effort, for a number of reasons, failed ― unless, as some activists have accused, the industry promoted hydrogen fuel cells to delay the electric vehicle revolution. Studies now show hydrogen is unlikely to play a big role in automobiles, yet it held back battery-powered vehicles from going mainstream for years.
......
Meanwhile, Ramel said he has visited close to 2,000 households across the largely blue district and senses that voters are more concerned about local issues like improved ferry service than broader national debates over energy. Voters contributed nearly US$30,000 in recent weeks after the campaign sent out fliers warning about the “outside money” warping the race.
Much better to read full report at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/washingto...83766ccad2
