Berkeley bans natural gas in new construction

[Renerabbitt]

Thought you should know

[javatom]

So, no more hot air coming out of Berkeley?

[Rich_Winsor]

I think they are over-reacting. Just because the 

giant bankrupt energy provider nearly blew San

Bruno to kingdom come and almost burned down

the entire state last summer is no reason to fly off

the handle and ban natural gas. 

 

[DRAWZILLA]

Berkley, figures.

[Gawdzira]

 

I strongly considered eliminating gas on my current project (and the electrical feed). Due to PG&E's delay in engineering my hookups, I may have to. I applied in November and they still do not have an engineering package ready. I am possibly less than 2 months from completion and I am waiting. The only items that need gas in the house are the fireplace and the water heater.

[Francois]

1 hour ago, Gawdzira said:

 

I strongly considered eliminating gas on my current project (and the electrical feed). Due to PG&E's delay in engineering my hookups, I may have to. I applied in November and they still do not have an engineering package ready. I am possibly less than 2 months from completion and I am waiting. The only items that need gas in the house are the fireplace and the water heater.

 

  I hope your T24 complied with a large margin because the new one will be reduced by a lot considering an electric water heater.

I would favor a house without gas. 

[Cheryl_C_Crane]

Induction ranges are AWESOME!

 

[Greg_NY61]

Soon CA will ban toilet paper... Nothing surprises me what's coming out of CA no wonder people run from there.

[JJohnson]

7 hours ago, Greg_NY61 said:

Soon CA will ban toilet paper... Nothing surprises me what's coming out of CA no wonder people run from there.

 

Berkeley was the first town to ban smoking in restaurants.

 

Now the ban is most everywhere.

 

 

[Rich_Winsor]

14 hours ago, JJohnson said:

Berkeley was the first town to ban smoking in restaurants.

 

Now the ban is most everywhere.

 

 Even a blind pig finds an occasional acorn.

 

Berkeley was also the first town to ban the

Fire Dept. from having U.S. flags on their

fire engines. 

 

Don't believe that ban has been universally 

adopted.

[JJohnson]

14 hours ago, Rich_Winsor said:

 

 Even a blind pig finds an occasional acorn.

 

Berkeley was also the first town to ban the

Fire Dept. from having U.S. flags on their

fire engines. 

 

Don't believe that ban has been universally 

adopted.

 

If you check that story out, like google it, you will learn that

it was not the town, but fire department officials and it had to 

do with keeping a low profile for the department when they

needed to standby at an antiwar rally.

 

Yours Truly, "Blind Pig" Johnson

[mborean]

Bizerkley did ban the flags at the direction of the Mayor.  I was a firefighter in the peninsula at the time and my brother/sister firefighters in Bizerkley were beside themselves.  We just lost 343 brothers in the towers for heaven's sake.  Banning natural gas is short sighted and just plain silly.  Us Californians who don't live on the coastal areas and who have no representation in state government seriously want to split the stat in two.

[JJohnson]

On 8/3/2019 at 5:02 PM, mborean said:

Bizerkley did ban the flags at the direction of the Mayor.  I was a firefighter in the peninsula at the time and my brother/sister firefighters in Bizerkley were beside themselves.  We just lost 343 brothers in the towers for heaven's sake.  Banning natural gas is short sighted and just plain silly.  Us Californians who don't live on the coastal areas and who have no representation in state government seriously want to split the stat in two.

 

Fire fighters are indeed heroic men and women, and they saved countless buildings and lives here in Sonoma and Napa Counties

during the firestorms in Oct. 2017

But Berkeley did not ban flags at the direction of their Mayor, so far as I am able to ascertain.

This is what I have learned by searching and reading online

 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fireban/

 

Or, read below.

 

Origins:   Fire trucks in Berkeley were stripped of their American flags by order of the fire chief, but the order was temporary and was prompted by a specific safety concern.

 

After the events of September 11, firefighters at all seven of Berkeley’s fire stations placed flags on the backs and sides of their engines to show solidarity with the missing firefighters and police officers in New York. Because a run on the supply of flags made smaller sizes difficult to obtain, firefighters used the flagpole-sized 4-by-6-foot flags the department had on hand to adorn their trucks.

 

On September 20, in anticipation of a Stop the War rally at University of California at Berkeley’s Sproul Hall Plaza (described as “the spot where countless protests have degenerated into burn-and-pillage free-for-alls, where rally-goers loot Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue stores, upturn vehicles and set fires”) Fire Chief Reginald Garcia ordered that flags be removed from fire trucks for the day in order to avoid making them the target of violence by anti-war demonstrators: 

 

Officials said they were trying to avoid a repeat of violence that occurred during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when demonstrators hurled rocks and bottles at city firetrucks sporting American flags. This week, the flag atop the Berkeley post office was burned in an anonymous act of protest, they said.

 

(Garcia said that it was his command staff who issued the order without his knowledge after a meeting he did not attend, but that he “certainly didn’t rescind the order.”)

 

The concern was that the presence of large flags on fire trucks during the Stop the War rally might create situations under which firefighters were diverted from their primary duties: 

 

“Based on past experience, these flags may be inflammatory to people and provoke them to take the flag or whatever else,” said Berkeley Assistant Fire Chief David Orth. “I don’t want a firefighter defending a flag in lieu of fighting a fire or rescuing somebody.”

 

As things turned out, the department’s fears were unrealized:

 

The department’s concerns appeared to have been for naught. Not one fight broke out among the 2,500 or so anti-war protesters who converged on Sproul Plaza for yesterday’s noontime rally. In fact, the greatest tension came from a counterdemonstration’s chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!” that drowned out those speaking at the rally

Origins:   Fire trucks in Berkeley were stripped of their American flags by order of the fire chief, but the order was temporary and was prompted by a specific safety concern.