On the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy in France, at least one large busload of people and several shuttle buses arrived at the South Coast Air Quality Management building in Diamond Bar. Armed with signs, buttons and clothing with messages supporting the elimination of gas furnaces and water heaters, the troops filed in and took their places. At 7:45 am, most of the seats were already taken for the meeting which was scheduled to begin at 9:00. The assembled multitude expected to be present for the triumph of electric HVAC and water heating over natural gas.
Hand-held signs in abundance were held up by attendees, but a sign in English and Spanish at the entrance to the building warned “No Posters, Costumes, or Props” and “No Megaphones/Bullhorns.” Armed sheriff deputies were posted outside and inside the building, and bags of those who entered were inspected. An abundance of pre-printed messages on 8 ½ X 11” papers (which were legal) were held up frequently. The Board had received 30,000 comment letters, so they were prepared for expressions of emotion.
The bus people were taking smiling photos with each other. Their attendance was recorded by people with clipboards. When the Board went into a brief closed session, one of the cheerleaders stood and led a call and response: “What do we want?” (“Clean air!”) “When do we want it?” (“Now!”) That had a familiar ring to it.
Finding space in the back row, one discovered the inconvenience of straining to hear over the ongoing Spanish translation taking place at the back of the room. A large contingent of Spanish speakers was in attendance, and during the public comments time, they were allotted 1.5 minutes instead of the usual 45 seconds to allow for translation.
Residents of San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties came together to see how the SCAQMD would vote. Mountain residents had been vocal, alerted by Kory Griggs of Indoor Weather to the plan that would bring about the financial hardship required to update their electrical panel to accommodate an HVAC system for both heat and cooling and eliminate their gas hot water heaters. Even the accommodation to try to assess a mitigation fee on the manufacturers of the gas-powered appliances did not ultimately fly. The equipment that would tend to blow cold air in midwinter if a lot of snow fell and the temperature dropped precipitously was vetoed. A PSPS (Public Service Power Shutoff) or other inconvenient loss of electrical power can still cause mountain people to scramble to work around the power outage, but one hurdle has been removed. One of the speakers who was not from the mountain said he had been without power for eight days, an inconvenient truth often overlooked: power goes out in lower elevations too.
The vote was 5 Yeses and 7 Nos: Nos: Highland Mayor Pro Tem Larry McCallon; San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman; Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson; Paramount Vice Mayor Brenda Olmos; Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez; Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen; and Yorba Linda Mayor Pro Tem Carlos Rodriguez. Yeses: South Pasadena Councilmember Michael Cacciotti; Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell; Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman; Board Member Padilla-Campos (California State Assembly Speaker appointee); and California State Senate Rules Committee Appointee Vanessa Delgado.
Mountain residents exercised their freedom of speech. Kory Griggs led the charge. A large swath of California was saved from being pressured to convert their electrical panels to accommodate equipment they didn’t want to be forced to buy—at least for now.