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A ballot measure that would impose a tax on large buildings that rely on natural gas for heating, cooking and other uses will appear on Berkeley’s November ballot, a city spokesperson said Thursday, after organizers collected more than enough valid signatures to place it before voters.
A group of Berkeley climate and labor activists calling themselves Fossil Free Berkeley have exceeded the threshold of signatures required to put the proposed tax, meant to incentivize building decarbonization, on the November ballot. The first-of-its-kind tax requires a simple majority to pass.
The Large Buildings Fossil Fuel Emissions Tax Ordinance, if approved by voters, would apply to all buildings in Berkeley over 15,000 square feet that depend on natural gas and is estimated to raise $23 million per year. Property owners would be responsible for paying the annual tax, which would be calculated based on the amount of natural gas used per year and expire at the end of 2050.
Berkeley Environment and Climate Commissioner Daniel Tahara, one of the organizers behind the ballot measure, said it’s designed to be a more “pragmatic” alternative to curb climate-change causing carbon emissions than Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas hookups, which was struck down by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The city spent nearly $300,000 in legal fees defending the now-defunct ban.
The extraction, burning and transport of natural gas releases carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change, the ballot measure’s text reads. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, unintended leaks of natural gas, which can occur when equipment components like connectors and valves wear out, release methane — also a potent greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere.
“[Natural gas] is damaging the world. You’re allowed to do it, but you should pay for those damages,” Tahara said.
Developers and property owners who don’t want to pay the tax should use electricity instead of gas in their buildings, he said.
The California Restaurant Association, which opposed and successfully fought the city’s attempt to ban new natural gas hookups, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the measure from Berkeleyside. However, during the fight over the gas hookups, the organization said the city overstepped its authority by passing the gas ban ordinance and caused harm to its members, some of whom might have opened a restaurant in Berkeley but for the ban.
John Caner, the CEO of the Downtown Berkeley Business Association, which previously urged the city to loosen its now-defunct gas ban, declined to comment on the proposed ballot measure until he has analyzed the proposal further. But Caner earlier said that while the group generally supported all-electric new development, it felt that the outright ban had gone too far.
Tahara, who works as a software engineer at Tesla, said the current Berkeley ballot measure grew out of a failed effort to get a similar tax passed in San Francisco in 2022, where he lived prior to moving to South Berkeley. After Berkeley’s landmark gas ban was reversed, he and other climate organizers felt a need to “defend” Berkeley’s mantle of being a leader on climate action, he said. This measure was their response.
The organizers gathered 4580 signatures for the proposed measure, city spokesperson Matthai Chakko wrote in an email, exceeding the 2895 they needed to get it on the November ballot.
Ninety percent of the funds raised from the tax on property owners with large, natural-gas using buildings would be earmarked to support city programs that convert buildings in Berkeley to cleaner energy sources, the ballot measure’s language says. This could include, for instance, the installation of heat pumps, induction stoves, solar panels, battery storage, electric vehicle charging. The remaining 10% would go toward union-represented city positions and cover administrative expenses for the city’s decarbonization program, according to the measure’s language.
Tahara said that electrification is happening in any case: the Bay Area Air Quality District has amended its building appliance rules to gradually phase out some gas appliances that emit nitrogen oxides, which have been linked to asthma, lung cancer and premature death.
The same organizers behind Fossil Free Berkeley are also pushing for what it’s called the Healthy Buildings Ordinance, which would require the city to adopt tighter heating and air conditioning restrictions in an effort to decrease what they say is a risk of disease transmission within city buildings.
That proposal has also met the required threshold of signatures. Because it is not a tax measure, city council will have an opportunity to pass the ordinance outright in July. If not adopted by city council, the measure will also appear on the November ballot.
This story was updated on June 3 to reflect that the burning of natural gas releases carbon dioxide, not methane.
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Iris Kwok covers the environment for Berkeleyside through a partnership with Report for America. A former music journalist, her work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, San Francisco Examiner… More by Iris Kwok
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