The legislation, which Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign, requires electricity-powered heat and hot water in most new buildings under seven stories by 2024 and all other buildings in 2027.
Multnomah county’s decision is one of the first Oregon fronts in the expanding “gas wars” which began in California in the summer of 2019 when Berkeley became the first city to ban gas in new construction.
“If built, Annova LNG would have destroyed wetlands, blocked a wildlife corridor threatening the survival of endangered wildlife, and put communities needlessly at risk,” said the Sierra Club in a statement.
The ban was supported by all four basin states — New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York — putting a permanent end to hydraulic fracking for natural gas along the 13,539-square-mile basin, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Energy minister Paul Wheelhouse says allowing unconventional extraction of coal and gas would put climate goals at risk
The majority, including a handful of Republicans, voted to ban the practice after hearing arguments that science shows that the risk of earthquakes, water contamination and health problems increases in fracked areas.
The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that hydraulic fracturing, the oil and gas extraction technique also known as fracking, has contaminated drinking water in some circumstances, according to the final version of a comprehensive study first issued in 2015.
