On one of the biggest moves to reduce air pollution in the past decade, Southern California air regulators on Friday adopted a rule that will require pool and hot tub owners to go electric.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s governing board voted 9-1 to effectively phase out certain kinds of natural-gas-fired water-heating equipment in homes and businesses across its four-county jurisdiction: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and part of San Bernardino.
The rule will lead to the replacement over three decades of more than 1 million gas-burning appliances — including an estimated 700,000 pool heaters and 300,000 tankless water heaters — with zero-emissions technology. It will also apply to 70,000 commercial water heaters at businesses such as dry cleaners, restaurants, hotels and hospitals.
It does not apply to residential water heaters with tanks, which have been regulated separately for decades.
Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.
By the time it’s fully implemented in 2058, the regulation is expected to prevent the release of 5.6 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides a day. That is the largest reduction in pollution from stationary sources since the air district passed its 2021 rule requiring better pollution controls at oil refineries. The rule would also slash planet-warming carbon emissions equivalent to removing 1.2 million cars from the road for one year.
Read the full story in the Los Angeles Times
