South Coast Air Quality District Enacts Yet Another Gas Heater Rule

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) is at it again, enacting a new rule that will force restaurants and other businesses and just regular folks with pools and hot tubs to replace their more efficient, less costly gas water heaters with electric versions.

The new rule – approved earlier this month and covering Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and (some of) San Bernardino Counties – mandates that “natural gas-fired pool heaters, larger water heaters, small commercial water heaters, boilers, and process heaters must meet a zero-emission nitrogen oxides (NOx) standard when replaced.”

Additionally, all new construction will only be allowed to have electric water heaters.

The rule rolls out in phases, with the first step to be taken in January, 2026 and the “final compliance phase” to begin in 2033 (regular home water heaters are not included in this rule – unless they are tankless –  but still must follow previously-established guidelines.)

“For new (constructed) buildings in 2026 installations of small units (>400k BTU/hr) must be zero emission. For existing buildings, starting in 2029, any small unit that is replacing a unit of a certain age (e.g.,, 25 years old), must be replaced with a zero emissions unit,” said SCAQMD spokeswoman Connie Villanueva.  “The same applies for larger and high temperature units. For all these categories, if being replaced in a residence or a small business, the age is not a factor, they can be replaced when they naturally would (e.g., end of useful life which could be longer than 25 years.)”

SCAQMD says it is instituting the new rules so as to comply with federal clean air rules.

“This is the first all zero-emission rule we’ve adopted, and the second highest reductions achieved from a rule in the past decade — second only to our rule which reduced emissions from petroleum refineries by nearly 8 tons of NOx per day,” said Vanessa Delgado, South Coast AQMD’s Governing Board Chair. “Not only is this a huge step towards improving air quality for our communities, it will have tremendous public health benefits.”

The greenie fight against nitrous oxides (not the stuff you get at the dentist, by the way) has stepped up in the past few years, which – if a person cared more about the environment and society itself – is rather odd considering the emissions have dropped – through noticeable and necessary technological improvements in cars and such – about 75% in the past 30 years.

While eight tons a day may sound like a lot, that cut is about one-third of one percent of the current national output.  The air basin itself has about 5% of the national population, so whether or not forcing people and businesses up to about $100 million to make the change is proportional can be called questionable.

It is also questionable because, on occasion, when they slip-up, greenies admit that nitrous oxides are primarily considered to be ground-level(ish) pollutants and not “greenhouse gases.”

Compared to gas heaters, electrics are slower in heating up water, have problems with meeting high demands, and in general more to operate.  Considering California has the highest electricity prices in the nation, they will in fact cost much more to operate.

Jackie Romero, the government affairs chief of the California Restaurant Association, told the SCAQMD board how damaging the new rule would be before they voted 9-1 to approve it.

“Our industry was the most restricted during the COVID pandemic and unfortunately many operators continue to face those economic hardships. Our operators simply cannot afford the cost that it would take taking into account permitting and installation costs. Electric water heaters and boilers are often 5-10xs more expensive than the current natural gas models, are much larger, and difficult to configure in many buildings,” Romero said. “Even with the timeline extensions and additional buffers, we are still concerned this will be infeasible by compliance deadlines. These costs- compiled with increases in food and labor costs will be beyond impactful for our operators. We ask that the cost on businesses continue to be considered and exemptions be made to industries where the installation of an electric unit far exceeds that of current natural gas models.”

SCAQMD noted that a rebate program will be available to cover, um, some of the cost…if people and businesses qualify.  

As a point of clarification, SCAQMD is not part of the California Air Resources Board, AKA the demon CARB. A quick rule of thumb is that CARB regulates things that move, SCAQMD things that don’t.

The regulation will impact about one million water heaters, of which about 700,000 are pool or spa-related. The remaining are mostly business-owned and in – as noted above – places like restaurants and laundry facilities that use and need a great deal of hot water.

If you happen to be wondering about how, in light of the federal court ruling against Berkeley’s gas appliance ban,  SCAQMD said this ban is different as the rule is “is not a ban but rather a zero- emission standard so those subject could comply with various equipment that generate zero emissions such as heat pumps, fuel cells, solar heating, etc.”

Oh, and don’t forget that natural gas was supposed to save the environment.