NYC's new gas ban highlights market growth needs for building electrification

Published by Smart Cities Dive: While critics of building electrification policies worry about the transition’s potential harm to housing affordability, advocates see the built environment as a critical battleground for achieving climate goals. Advocates for change also highlight the negative health impacts and air pollution that stem from burning gas.

Banning natural gas hookups in new buildings is poised to prompt the adoption of electric appliances such as heat pumps and induction stoves at a wider scale.

But such a transition will require providing workers with the skill set needed to implement newer tech in buildings. Other sectors that are actively cutting fossil fuel reliance face similar challenges. Across the U.S., “there’s a recognition that there’s a tremendous amount of workforce development that has to happen,” said New Buildings Institute Communications Director Stacey Hobart. “But the planning for that and [figuring out] how to train this many people is still sort of nascent.”