A Review of Lakewood’s Proposed “Beneficial Home Electrification and Upgrade Program”
Guest Post from Bill Foshag
Editor’s Note: This plan will be acted on by City Council during the April 22 meeting. Check that meeting packet to see the full proposal for the LAC side of the story.
The Lakewood Advisory Commission (LAC) put together a “Beneficial Home Electrification and Upgrade Program” (BHEUP). This plan will come a great expense to the residents of Lakewood, and will mandate drastic changes to the City’s building code.
The Plan
The BHEUP plan targets Lakewood homes and multi-family buildings for CO2 reduction. It is presented in response to a proposal at a July 2023 City Council meeting where the Advisory Committee was approved to look into policies and actions to expedite “green renovation” in Lakewood’s residential buildings. Lakewood has a 2015 “sustainability plan” that calls for reducing the city’s CO2 emissions to 20% below 2007 levels by the year 2025. According to the plan, “Partnering in the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy commits Lakewood to achieve net zero community greenhouse gas emissions by 2050”. Achieving these goals means the entire elimination of the use of natural organic fuel sources (oil, natural gas, and coal). There is no discussion in the report why the city has partnered with a global organization that does not represent our residents.
Achieving these goals means the entire elimination of the use of natural organic fuel sources (oil, natural gas, and coal).
The plan states that 21% of Lakewood’s CO2 emissions come from residences. The sources of the remaining 79% of CO2 emissions in Lakewood (commercial, transportation, unspecified “consumption”, and other sources) are not targeted for reductions. The report does not state why residences are specifically targeted and why larger CO2 contributors are excluded. Traditionally, governing bodies have found it easier to regulate individuals, as corporations and larger organizations have lobbying groups and funding, and are better equipped to fight back and litigate if necessary.
The plan states that the targeted properties are multi-family units over 20,000 square feet, with certain exemptions for new homes under 2,500 square feet, and remodeling of existing homes. Further reading shows in fact, that it calls for changes to be made to the EDM which would include all existing residences and all new construction regardless of square footage under this plan.
The plan LAC proposes has four primary recommendations to achieve the goal of greenhouse gas reduction:
1. Establish a Lakewood program for tax credit and rebate match for qualifying upgrades.
2. Make additions to the Enhanced Development Menu (EDM), Article 13 and (continue to) adapt as conditions develop in order to meet goals.
3. Add full time employees as deemed necessary at the Lakewood Building Department and Sustainability Division to implement and administer recommendations.
4. Develop a comprehensive community outreach and education plan to promote and support appropriate electrification and weatherization.
Adding more support staff to implement these changes has budget implications at a time Lakewood is already asking for more money.
The plan calls for partnering with companies such as BlocPower, a for-profit corporation based in New York. No doubt BlocPower would profit from Lakewood’s adoption of this proposal. Representatives from BlocPower are noted as assisting in preparing this plan.
A Sense of Urgency
The LAC is making this proposal with a sense of urgency:
“The LAC supports urgent adoption of these recommendations so Lakewood staff will have time to develop programs affecting the 2025 city budget. Federal funds are available now and state funds become available in 2024”
and:
“They (Federal funds) may not be available indefinitely, especially given the uncertainty of election outcomes and politics. It is therefore imperative that Lakewood takes the below listed steps related to funding opportunities…”.
A quick approval of this plan by City Council allows less time for resident’s feedback. It does not allow for careful analysis of the necessary expenses and possible consequences of a proposal that will be very costly for the residents and likely to require unacceptable lifestyle changes.
Mandated Major Changes
The plan seeks to take away homeowners energy choices and impose city mandated regulations via changes in the building code and permitting processes to achieve these goals:
“Broad adoption of electrification is necessary to make significant change. Where voluntary reductions fall short of decarbonization goals, upgrades at the point of replacement of heating appliances and furnaces can be encouraged at permitting or through the expansion of Lakewood’s Enhanced Development Menu: EDM. Additionally, Federal, state, and local incentives can assist most homeowners in the transition away from greenhouse gas producing systems and can be weighted to further assist homeowners when affordability is insurmountable.”
Heat Pumps
The plan advocates the use of heat pumps to replace natural gas furnaces. Heat pumps can be thought of as air conditioners that can be run in reverse. They generally work well and efficiently within certain specific indoor/outdoor temperature ranges, but when those temperatures ranges widen, the efficiency drops. Working as a heat pump, the units depend on a certain amount of heat to be available in the ambient air outside so that heat can be transferred indoors for heating. For residential heating, heat pumps can work fairly well when the outside temperatures are in the 50 to 60 degree range, but their efficiency and ability to heat a home drops considerably when the temperatures approach 40 degrees. Below 40 degrees, heat pumps are not able to maintain indoor temperatures at comfortable levels so some sort of back-up heat source is required. The back-up is typically either a natural gas furnace or an electrical (resistive) heating source. While resistive heating works well, it is very expensive compared to natural gas heating. Heating homes in this area with heat pumps is very expensive, not efficient, and not practical considering the cold winters we have in Lakewood.
The plan also mentions heat pump systems for heating water. The BHEUP proposal states:
“Add electrification compliance of a heat pump water heater at the replacement of natural gas hot water heaters. This achieves GHG emissions reduction at a relatively low cost”.
This is a fallacy as the tanks and required equipment for heat pump systems are more complex and expensive than a traditional natural gas water heater. As with a heat pump furnace, the operating costs for a heat pump water system will increase dramatically on cold winter days when the temperature drops and the system needs to rely on an electrical backup for heat. Heating water with natural gas is clean, efficient, and inexpensive cheap. Heating water with electricity is very expensive.
The Costs
The BHEUP plan comments on the expenses that will be incurred if their plan is adopted:
“Decarbonization of existing homes is expensive. When federal and state incentives are not adequate to lower the costs enough to prompt action, additional incentives from local governments will be required and are proven to be effective, especially for those with low and moderate incomes.”
This is tacit admission that the residents will not be able to afford compliance with the plan, and that Lakewood will have to spend taxpayer money to cover shortfalls after state and federal funds are exhausted.
Additionally, the BHEUP plan directly calls for the taxpayers to pay for, or subsidize, the costs of implementing the plan:
“The past few years have brought an unprecedented surge in available government funding to support initiatives recommended here. Most of this recent funding comes from massive federal legislation: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and other programs, providing targeted funding for climate and clean energy development with millions of dollars available to Lakewood and our citizens”.
During, and as a result of, the covid scare, the Federal government adopted a number of plans to make funds (through programs such as IRA and IIJA) available to stimulate the economy. The current availability of these funds to be used for funding the BHEUP plan is not addressed in the report. Similar arguments about the use of taxpayer funds (“grants”) were made by city council members in the discussions regarding the DOLA grant for the navigation center – the taxpayer money is available, let’s get it and spend it before another city takes it. Lakewood City Council has adopted a position of taking whatever taxpayer money is available and spending it without careful consideration of the possible range of outcomes or disadvantages. It is important to note that subsidies from the government come from money paid by taxpayers, so the plan would be implemented at a cost to the residents both directly and through the collection of property and income taxes.
There will be additional expenses for maintaining, growing, and administering a new BHEUP program. The plan calls for hiring people to seek funding for the program and to oversee and monitor the progress of the program to make sure the City stays on-mark with their CO2 reduction goals.
“…Add necessary full time employees at the Sustainability Division and as needed at the Lakewood Building Department to implement and administer any adopted recommendations.”
A typical basic solar conversion can easily cost $30,000. That will provide a homeowner with a 6 or 7 kwh system of panels, inverters, a battery backup, and wiring. An older electrical panel will require an upgrade, which will run an additional $5,000 to $10,000. Insurance companies sometimes will not insure homes after installing solar if the roof is beyond a certain age, so a new roof may also be necessary when converting to solar. Replacing natural gas furnaces and water heaters with heat pump units could easily cost $10,000 or more. Because heat pumps require more equipment, some remodeling may be in order to accommodate the additional equipment. What might appear to be a simple conversion away from natural gas to the alternatives advocated by LAC could easily cost the homeowner in excess of $50,000. The cost to convert all 42,000 single family homes in Lakewood would be in excess of $2 billion. There are an additional 30,000 housing units (multi-family, apartments, condos, etc.) that would need to be converted under this plan, at additional costs likely to exceed $1 billion. It is unlikely federal, state, and city governments would be willing to spend over $3 billion for Lakewood to upgrade its housing to all electric. The bulk of the costs, if this plan passes and the mandates are imposed, will be borne by the residents. With residents already struggling with their property taxes and a high inflation post-covid economic environment, it’s unrealistic they will be able or willing to spend anything near $50,000 to comply with this plan.
Comments From Advocates of the Plan
An advocacy group called Clean Energy Lakewood is cited in the BHEUP plan as assisting with the details and documentation of the report. A number of people speaking for this group appeared before City Council at the February 26 meeting during public comments. Each of them addressed the issues contained in the BHEUP plan. One speaker began his remarks with “the most important thing we can do is not use energy in the first place”. Living without the use of energy is not possible, yet this seems to be the ultimate goal of those promoting the plan. Another speaker commented that the residents need (as an imperative) to modify their homes, stating “we don’t have the resources to scrape them (the older houses in Lakewood), we’re going to have to rehab them”, seemingly implying City Council needs to mandate upgrades. He even admitted the cost of doing so is high, commenting that converting his home to net zero energy was “not easy and not cheap”. He added that the residents would have to change to a new way of living, stating “the greatest (variability) of all is lifestyles and the people that live in those homes”. Another speaker advocated the oft-heard money-grab excuse that we better get the Federal money before someone else does, saying “the Federal government has money available for this and if we do nothing, that money goes to other cities and residents (sic) elsewhere”
No Direct Benefit to the Community
Contrary to the name of the BHEUP proposal, the plan is noticeably absent of any mention of direct benefit to the community. It claims the aim of the plan is to reduce CO2 emissions, but there is no discussion or indication how implementing this plan will impact our lives or make anything better for residents. Claims that CO2 increases global temperatures (or vice-versa) are spurious at best. The “science” of the global warming/climate change debate is in fact not settled as a number of highly credentialed climate scientists seriously doubt the claims made by climate alarmists. To put this in perspective, global annual CO2 emissions are in the 35 billion ton range. The BHEUP plan notes that Lakewood’s annual CO2 equivalent output is approximately 882,000 mt which is far in excess of the global total – I believe the number they mean to represent is 882,000 tons. With these figures, Lakewood’s contribution to global CO2 output is 0.0025%, or about 1 part out of 40,000. If Lakewood entirely eliminated CO2 emissions, not just elimination of CO2 from residences targeted in this plan, there would be no significant impact on the global CO2 levels. A number of countries are continuing to increase their CO2 emissions each year, and those increases far exceed the total CO2 output from Lakewood. It is incredulous that the city would expect each homeowner in Lakewood to spend tens of thousands of dollars (not to mention additional tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funded grant money) on a plan that has no discernable benefit whatsoever.
The Bigger Picture – A Reason to Pause
As I write this, I take note of the bigger picture. There’s a movement advocating a switch to electrical power and the total elimination of the use of natural organic fuels by 2030, or 2040, or 2050 (depending on which global organization you listen to). People and corporations are beginning to realize the failures and limitations of this great conversion, and we’re seeing it in some recent headlines. “Ford to scale back plans for $3.5 billion Michigan battery plant as EV demand disappoints, labor costs rise”, “Ford Rival GM Pulls Back On 2024 EV Production Plans”, “EV euphoria is dead. Automakers are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans”, and “Mercedes-Benz scales back electric ambitions as EV pessimism grows”, just to name a few. Large corporations and investment firms (including JP Morgan, State Street Bank, and BlackRock) who once embraced ESG (environmental, safety, and governance) guidelines are now baking off after realizing the onerous demands, high costs, and minimal benefit of the “environmental” part of ESG. A number of states have also taken positions against ESG themed investing guidelines for their state funds. People are realizing that converting everything from traditional organic energy sources to electricity is just not working out as promised. Yet the City of Lakewood seems to be rushing ahead, embracing the failed promises of an all-electric future as many others are taking a second look and backing off.
