Bend, Oregon, is set to become the latest Oregon municipality to phase out gas-powered appliances by introducing fees on them in new homes.
The Oregonian reported on the measure that was voted forward by the Bend City Council. It aims to replicate what Ashland implemented at the start of the year after the policy's approval last year.
Ashland's fee was the state's first on gas appliances. Similar concepts are taking root nationwide, even as the Trump administration removed incentives for home electrification in 2025.
The fee structure takes into account the social cost of gas appliances. It calculates their associated pollution, lifespan, and expected use.
In Bend, fees from gas-fueled appliances will help pay for an incentive program for home electrification, including heat pumps and electric heat pump water heaters.
The idea is that as more clean energy, like solar and wind, comes on board to power the electricity grid, these energy-efficient upgrades will end up polluting less themselves and rely less on polluting sources than natural gas.
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It's no surprise that gas providers oppose the fee structure. The NW Coalition for Energy Choice, a group representing the industry, said the fees will raise the costs of new housing and make energy more unreliable.
Cascade Natural Gas, the city's primary gas utility, also disagrees with the measure. The company said it has multiple programs, including a renewable gas production facility and a dual-fuel heat pump initiative that can help Bend achieve its climate goals.
Just like in Ashland, where youth activism helped pass the measures, Bend's students are rallying to the cause, including Mikayla May, a junior in high school.
"In light of moves from the federal government to strip its own ability to fight climate change and the effects that our own community is currently experiencing, it is clear that state and local governments have the most power to fight the climate crisis," May said to the City Council, per The Oregonian.
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May is no doubt referencing factors such as historically low snowpack this winter and rising risks of events like wildfires.
That's why Noah Nelson, the board chair of the local environmental nonprofit 350 Deschutes, asserts that, if anything, the measures should be harsher.
"Not only is there cost in action, but there is also a cost to taking action too slowly," Nelson told The Oregonian.
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