AgdaPkt 2020-01-13 Joint - Laserfiche WebLink

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CLK-Pamela Aguilar From: Diane Bailey <diane@menlospark.org> Sent: Monday, January 13, 2020 4:15 PM To: CLK-Pamela Aguilar; Council -Ian Bain; Council -Diane Howard; Council-Giselle Hale; Council -Alicia Aguirre; Council -Janet Borgens; Council -Shelly Masur; Council -Diana Reddy; Forward of Internet E -Mail Cc: PWS -Vicki Sherman; MGR -Melissa Stevenson Diaz; Debbie Mytels; cross0828 @yahoo.com Subject: Strong Support for All -Electric Reach Code for New Construction (Re: Study Session on proposed and revised ordinance amendments to the Energy and Green Building Standards Codes towards the adoption of Reach Codes) Attachments: FFBSV Comment Letter Redwood City Reach Code Proposal 102819.pdf; 4 Lin - Childhood asthma nitrogendioxide gas stoves .pdf, Cooking with gas can harm children - 19 07 15 Final.pdf Dear Mayor Howard, Council Members, and staff, I wanted to resend the October 27th 2019 comments from the Campaign for Fossil Free Buildings in Silicon Valley to reaffirm our support for All -Electric Reach Codes. I urge you to move forward quickly to adopt an All -Electric Reach Code, joining neighboring cities including Cupertino, Mountain View, Menlo Park, Pacifica, Brisbane, Saratoga, and San Jose. In total at least 23 cities in California have adopted policies to avoid gas use in new construction, in order to reduce fossil fuel use and the associated climate impacts, air pollution, and health and safety hazards. I hope you will join these cities in protecting their residents as quickly as possible. In addition, in order to make the policy as effective as possible, please consolidate exemptions into one that allows any developer or builder to apply for an exemption if they are concerned that building all -electric is not appropriate for their unique circumstances (as Berkeley and Morgan Hill have done & discussed in staff proposed "Exception 9 — Infeasibility Exception"). It also should be noted, that the staff report does not discuss the significant health hazards of cooking with gas. For example: Children living in a home with a gas cooking stove have a 42% increased risk of current asthma (95% confidence interval (CI] 1.23, 1.64), and a 24% increased lifetime risk of asthma (95% C/ 1.04, 1.47). Please find attached several resources documenting the health hazards of cooking with gas. Last month, the Massachusetts Medical Society released a warning of the environmental and health hazards of natural gas from three prominent physicians in its New England Journal of Medicine (December 4, 2019). The authors detail air pollution, health and climate impacts of natural gas, much of which comes from a destructive drilling process called fracking. For those reasons, the physicians "recommend that new residential or commercial gas hookups not be permitted, new gas appliances be removed from the market, further gas exploration on federal lands be banned, and all new or planned construction of gas infrastructure be halted." As health hazards become better known, it is important to act swiftly to protect the public. This has been the case with other products, such as vaping. I hope you will act quickly to transition off of gas as well. Thank you for considering these comments. warm regards, Diane Bailey