We need you to raise your vital voice again. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) is poised to vote on the district's most expensive regulation to date. If the proposed PAR 1146.2 is adopted, it would phase out natural gas water heaters and boilers in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties.
🚨 This would apply to all commercial buildings and multifamily units – new and existing.
🚨 Compliance would be mandatory by 2026 for new buildings, and 2029 for existing buildings.
This would be SCAQMD's most expensive rule in the agency's 48-year history. Projected costs from SCAQMD staff fall between $49 and $97 million per year! (Analysis from outside experts show costs could actually be 5 to 10 times higher than SCAQMD's estimate.) The SCAQMD Governing Board is set to vote on this rule in June. We're mobilizing all BizFed members to call for a pause. During that pause, regulators must conduct more site visits, thoroughly analyze the rule's economic impacts, and meet with more stakeholders.
Agency staff met with only a limited pool of stakeholders, meaning this rule was written with little feedback from impacted community members. We've heard concerns from BizFed members ranging from small business owners (who would be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in compliance costs) to larger property owners (who estimate their costs could reach tens of millions of dollars). Other members have told us it's not even possible to retrofit their buildings because compliant units are far too large for their available space.
Click the link below to quickly and easily send an advocacy letter to the SCAQMD Governing Board and staff asking for more time to conduct thoughtful analysis. If you are interested in inviting regulators to visit your business and discuss proposal concerns in person, please email our Director of Advocacy Sarah Wiltfong at sarah.wiltfong@bizfed.org. We're confident business leaders can work with the agency to find a sensible compromise. With implementation dates more than a year away, there is no air quality impact to deferring action on this proposed rule.
