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I respectfully request that you adopt a requirement for all buildings to be electric, rather than just an <br />incentive. If required for passage, exceptions can be provided for specific technologies (cooking or fireplaces) <br />or building types (restaurants or hospitals). A requirement will provide much higher levels of adoption than an <br />incentive only program, and avoid building yet more buildings with gas that we will have to retrofit in the <br />years ahead. <br />Palo Alto has had an incentive for electric buildings in place for 3 years and it has resulted in very low <br />adoption (-10%) of all electric buildings due to industry inertia. <br />Our 65 person architectural firm has designed over a dozen all electric buildings of all types over the past 19 <br />years. We have found it to be cost effective, safe, healthy, reliable, and much lower in carbon emissions. <br />We have completed large commercial buildings including a 100,000 square foot office building in Colorado (a <br />much more difficult climate) and the 180,000 square foot Exploratorium Science Center. Please see the <br />attached slide deck showing numerous large commercial projects that are all electric. <br />When this reach code discussion began last year, I met with seven of the leading mechanical engineering firms <br />and many numerous other architects in the bay area to ask if the design and construction industry was ready to <br />go all electric, and they agreed that it was with few exceptions for things like hospitals and industrial <br />processes. Please see the attached slide deck for their comments on the affordability of all electric. <br />Our largest client is the University of California which prohibits gas for heating and hot water in all of their <br />new buildings of all types on all ten of their campuses. They did extensive analysis before making this policy <br />including this study which demonstrated that it was cost effective across multiple building types. UC is <br />constructing 4 large student housing projects using independent developers and they are all going electric <br />because it costs less to build. You can see these projects in the slide decks attached. Many affordable housing <br />developers are choosing electric for the same reason. <br />https://www.ucop.edu/sustainability`/­­ <br />files/Carbon%20Neutral%20New%20Building%20Cost%20Stud% <br />nalReport.pdf <br />Thank you for all of your efforts on this reach code. <br />Best Regards, <br />Scott <br />