How my family is getting fossil fuels out of our life — and how you can too
We have modified the content of this blog post after reflecting on the implications of our messaging on overpopulation. We are sorry if we caused harm and we share in the collective grief of the legacy of these messages tangibly enacted on our community. We are actively working to create a discourse around what happened and hope to involve the CEC community in that process. Here is a resource we’d like to share that is influencing our learning right now: “Climate Change and Population” from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Back in 2007, when the Community Environmental Council (CEC) released one of the first regional carbon-neutrality plans in the United States, we had a lot of hurdles to jump in order to make good on our catchy slogan: “Fossil Free by ‘33”. Now, about halfway to 2033, it’s amazing to witness the progress California Central Coast communities have made toward carbon neutrality, much of it due to CEC’s advocacy.
Our region adopted Community Choice Energy, and many local cities are now powered by 100% clean and renewable energy. Others will reach 100% by 2030 through contracts for new solar, wind, geothermal, and energy storage. California has sold over 1.3 million electric vehicles (EVs), and is ramping up new EV sales to phase out gas-powered vehicles by 2035. This necessarily includes efforts to help lower income earners make the transition to electric, ultimately saving them money on purchase costs, maintenance, and daily fuel. Cities are figuring out how to get natural gas out of buildings, and the State of California now has a legal goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2045 or sooner. We are on a path for my toddler to become an adult in a near zero carbon world.
Accelerated climate action is of utmost importance. Climate disasters predicted to afflict our children and grandchildren in coming decades—including unprecedented wildfires, hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, and floods—are instead impacting us right now. Getting off of fossil fuels is also a major environmental justice issue for many reasons, including the negative impacts it has on the health and livelihoods of communities that live next to the oil drilling, refineries, fracking, and freeways.
While advocating for policy change at local, regional, and global scales is critical to act on climate change, individual actions also play an important role in ending our reliance on fossil fuels. Individual steps add up and can influence corporate and government decisions as well. Plus, there are now many fantastic solutions that make it possible for individuals and households to ditch fossil fuels. My family was fortunate enough to purchase a small house in 2010, and over the past decade we have reduced our daily fossil fuel use by about 95%. Below you’ll find 10 powerful actions so that you can too!
New vehicles and appliances can be expensive, so our family phased in purchases over the years, upgrading to energy-efficient and electric models once existing machines failed and needed to be replaced. Many of the following solutions are for homeowners, but there are also ways renters can adopt or advocate for similar solutions in their lives, homes, and apartment complexes.
The key is doing the research ahead of time so you are prepared and know the long-term financial and environmental benefits of going electric. My hope is that the information below will make it easier for you to switch away from the default fossil-fueled version when something fails. There is a lot of material presented here, so bookmark this blog and revisit it as needed.
To stay up-to-date on the latest clean energy incentives, policies, and opportunities, be sure to sign up to the Community Environmental Council’s email list.
If you want to start taking local political action in support of a just and equitable transition to clean energy and electrification, sign up for policy action alerts with CEC. We will let you know when there is action you can take in your community.
1.Drive Less
How much and what kind of vehicle you drive is the most impactful environmental choice most people make every day, and can be the largest way to reduce your carbon footprint. About 50% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, a percentage mirrored at the household level. This means that for many of us, our transportation needs contribute roughly half of our household fossil fuel emissions.
CEC has consistently pushed our region to make alternatives to driving easy, so that driving a car is a choice, not a necessity. Living in downtown Santa Barbara, my wife and I downsized to a one car household. Instead of driving we often walk, bike, or carpool. Many people also find it easy to take transit, rideshare, or invest in a bike or electric bike instead of owning a car or second car. Since AAA cites that the annual cost of new car ownership is $10,728, getting rid of a car can also be a great financial move. CEC works on numerous community planning processes to make our region easier to navigate without a car.
My family is very happy when we bike to the beach or gym, as well as to work, errands, the park, and whenever we can.
Resources to Help You Drive Less
2.Drive Clean
Electric vehicles (EVs) are commonplace in California with 1.3 million sold, and they are the highest-impact option for weaning off our fossil fuel addiction. They are also surprisingly affordable––after incentives, used EVs can be purchased for under $10,000 and some new ones can be purchased for under $20,000. Many EVs achieve more than 100 mpg equivalent, and can be fueled/charged and maintained for less than half the cost of gas vehicles. Consumer Reports finds that EVs could save many drivers $800-$1,000 per year in fuel, and $4,600 in lifetime maintenance, with many popular EVs offering lifetime savings of $8,000-$17,000, even including a higher upfront cost.
EVs reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 75% per mile, and up to 100% if you go solar or choose 100% renewable electricity through your utility. EVs also produce zero tailpipe pollution, meaning cleaner air for all our communities, and most critically for those living in close proximity to high traffic roads and freeways. There are 115 new or used EV models available in all sizes from small sedans to large hatchbacks, crossovers, SUVs, and trucks.
I leased a Chevrolet Volt Plug-in Hybrid in 2012 and then bought it, and have helped my mom lease two EVs: a Nissan Leaf and a VW eGolf (they ranged from $165-$325/month for three years after using the CA rebate as the down payment). Leasing EVs can be more financially advantageous than gas cars because of the way the incentives are structured. Some low-to-moderate income EV drivers who qualify for enhanced incentives (for example, families of four with a household income under $111,000) have stacked multiple incentives together to lease EVs for free or very low cost. These drivers, particularly ones that qualify for an extra regional incentive because they live in Central Coast Community Energy territory, could also purchase some used EVs for as little as $5,000 or new ones for under $15,000.
In 2018, I sold the Volt and purchased a Tesla Model 3 for $37,000 (after incentives/before tax). I chose this vehicle because it is the most efficient EV with access to Tesla’s impressive fast charging network that makes road trips fairly easy. We’ve taken the Model 3 on backpacking trips to the Eastern Sierras many times, as well as on a 2,500 mile road trip to the national parks of Utah and back. Now in 2023, there are many capable, affordable EVs that could replace a gas car as a family’s only vehicle. These include the Chevrolet Bolt, Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Kona, and Kia Niro. The Bolt and Leaf can be purchased for under $20,000 or even less after incentives.
While road trips with these cars aren’t as seamless as with a Tesla, they are certainly possible. My dad drove his Bolt from Santa Barbara to Seattle and my colleague drove his Niro EV from Santa Barbara to Montana. Car prices are inflated right now, but experts predict prices will become more reasonable again in the coming months, so now is a good time to do the research and get ready. We also installed solar panels on our home that have since paid for themselves and can now charge our EV for free for the next 15+ years. The investment sure beats paying for gas, as I describe below.
The new federal climate bill extends the $7,500 federal tax credit for some EVs, and adds a new $4,000 tax credit for used EVs. There are many other incentives described in the resources below, including enhanced incentives for low-to-moderate income people. Currently a family of four earning under $111,000/yr could qualify for $8,000 in incentives on a used EV and $15,000-$18,000 on a new EV.
My wife Sonya and I took our EV on a 2,500 mile pandemic road trip through Arizona and Utah, camping down dirt roads and all.
Resources to Help You Drive Clean
CEC’s EV 101 webinar to get up to speed on all the basics
ElectricDrive805, the local EV readiness site for drivers, workplaces, property managers, and local governments
ElectricForAll, California’s official place for EV education
California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project incentive
SoCal Edison’s used EV incentive
Central Coast Community Energy regional EV incentive
PlugShare, the best charging station map and app
3.Fly Less
I started off this piece noting that my family has been able to reduce 95% of our daily fossil fuel usage. Like many people, we have family in other states and enjoy traveling immensely. Much of our remaining fossil fuel footprint comes from flying.
Each flight uses roughly half the carbon per passenger that it would take to drive to that destination. Thus one round trip flight from Los Angeles to New York emits approximately .62 tons of C02 per passenger from fossil fuels, or roughly what an average gas car uses in seven weeks. That means flying a family of three that distance uses the same amount of fuel as driving a gas car five months! From a climate impact, it gets even worse. Due to radiative forcing, (higher global warming potential due to emissions released at higher altitudes), flying can have two to three times the climate impact beyond the direct fossil fuel usage. Since flying is the most carbon intensive activity most humans do, an activist movement has sprung up encouraging travelers to swap flights for train trips or other more sustainable ways to travel.
In our own lives we’ve made some changes, trying to fly less and instead carpooling in our solar-powered EV. We’ve had wonderful adventures camping or backpacking in our local mountains, or visiting new towns in neighboring counties, instead of driving or flying to a more distant location. Get to know your own region more deeply, instead of jetting off to farther flung places. Carpool to Big Bear or Mammoth, instead of flying to Utah for a snow vacation. Consider taking flights half as often, but staying twice as long. This is most impactful for international or long flights, which release a huge amount of carbon in a short time. Some people buy carbon offsets. This can help reduce the carbon impact from flying and other activities, but there can be issues with verifiability and permanency. Offsets shouldn’t provide an excuse for excess consumption; the best solution is figuring out ways to live a satisfying life while reducing carbon pollution.
Air transportation is a hard to decarbonize sector, unfortunately for those of us that love to travel.
Resources to Help You Fly Less
Tips to make your flights more sustainable
4.Electrify Your Appliances
CEC has successfully advocated for all-electric infrastructure in new construction in places like Santa Barbara, but how do you get natural gas out of an existing home or building? One key way that can save money and energy is to replace old natural gas furnaces or water heaters with highly efficient electric heat pumps for heating and cooling your home and heating hot water. These two appliances typically consume about 80-90% of the natural gas used in most California homes, with stoves and dryers as much smaller energy users.
In 2021, my family replaced our 24-year-old natural gas furnace with a highly efficient electric heat pump. It is three to four times more efficient than the gas furnace, since it moves heat from outside into the home rather than burning gas to produce new heat. It works fine to heat our home in the winter, and can also cool our home in the summer, which is an extra resiliency bonus as the climate warms. I cannot lie, having A/C on the increasingly hot days is a huge benefit of replacing a natural gas furnace with a heat pump. Most people heat their homes every morning for about five months in Santa Barbara, whereas we sparingly only need to run the A/C for a few weeks on the hottest days of summer. Thus even with adding A/C and additional summer energy usage, the overall system is much more efficient because the highly efficient winter heating is the larger energy demand.
Our cost was about $10,000 for a ducted heat pump, but depending on the size of the home a heat pump may cost up to $20,000. There are new incentives that could reduce this price by $5,000 or more. A heat pump is more expensive than replacing a natural gas furnace, but may be similar in price to replacing a gas furnace and A/C unit. If our increasing heat waves are making you consider adding an A/C unit to your home, definitely consider a heat pump as it will decrease your overall energy use and can be powered by 100% renewable energy, both of which are important to reducing fossil fuel emissions.
Your hot water heater is another important fossil-fuel-guzzling appliance to consider replacing. We plan on replacing ours in the next year or two. Heat pump water heaters are also high efficiency energy and money savers, though fairly new and not as established as heat pumps for home heating. Some plumbers in our region can install them, and you can find contractors for any electrification project at The Switch Is On.
Our new heat pump replaced our natural gas furnace, can heat AND cool, is four times as efficient, and can run off our solar panels.
Resources to Help You Electrify Your Appliances
Learn how to electrify your home and access incentives at The Switch Is On
3C-REN has incentives for heat pumps and other energy efficiency measures
Get a $2,000 heat pump tax credit and more with the federal climate bill
Access local incentives through Central Coast Community Energy
Hear from local homeowners about their highly efficient heat pumps
5.Go Solar (or choose 100% renewables) for Home Power
Solar, electric vehicles, and heat pumps are complementary technologies, and invested in together result in faster payback. If you electrify your life you won’t need to buy as much gasoline or natural gas, and can instead purchase a larger, more cost-effective solar array. We invested in a 2.88 kW solar array in 2013, paying $7,300 after incentives. Our electricity bill has been zeroed out in that time and it paid for itself in 6 years, which means we can drive our EV and power our house for free for two decades! That sure beats paying $50,000 for 25 years of gasoline and ever increasing electric prices! A general rule is that 2 kW worth of solar panels (typically costing $5,000-$6,000 after incentives as part of a larger home array) will power an efficient EV 12,000 miles/year. If you drive less, you may need even fewer panels. The federal climate bill increased the solar (and storage) tax credit to 30% for the next 10 years.
Having an EV or heat pump also allows you to qualify for special discounted electric rates that encourage users to shift usage to off-peak times, such as SCE’s Time-of-Use Prime. Much of the year, this rate of 20 cents/kWh off peak allows you to charge an EV (or use your heat pump) for the equivalent of $2.00/gallon of gasoline. With time-of-use pricing, using electricity between 4 - 9 p.m. is much more expensive, but it is easy to set an EV to charge off-peak.
Additionally, a heat pump uses most of its winter load off-peak during cold winter mornings—and you can pre-cool your house before 4 p.m. in the summer to avoid peak pricing. With a 250+ mile range, many EV drivers only need to charge up their cars once or twice a week, which is convenient to do at night. An equally affordable time is during the day before 4 p.m., which is the environmentally preferred time because of plentiful solar energy, both on the grid and for charging your car directly with your solar panels. At CEC, we affectionately call this “driving on sunshine” and have a whole blog series about local folks that have made the switch.
When my wife and I know we will be home or not using our car during the day, we try to charge our EV once or twice a week between 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. to maximize the solar power going directly from our panels into our EV, paired with the abundant solar energy coming from California’s large solar farms.
If you are a renter or your home is unsuitable for solar because of shading or other reasons, you can still go 100% renewable through your utility. Santa Barbara Clean Energy, the Community Choice provider serving Santa Barbara, and Clean Power Alliance, which serves most of the Ventura region, already offer 100% clean and renewable electricity. In fact Clean Power Alliance is the largest provider of 100% renewable electricity in the nation! Central Coast Community Energy (CCCE), which serves most of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, is quickly spurring new construction of solar, wind, geothermal, and battery storage farms to reach their goal of 100% clean and renewable electricity by 2030. As a customer of CCCE or Southern California Edison (SCE), you can opt-up to 100% renewables through their green rates.
Solar panels are synergistic technologies with electric vehicles and heat pumps, allowing for faster paybacks and no more fossil fuels.
Resources to Help You Go Solar for Home Power:
CEC’s solar web page
6.Get Home Battery Storage
Many people with solar arrays are now adding battery storage in order to use excess inexpensive midday solar production in the evening, when electricity is expensive, and to provide peace of mind in the event of a power failure. Contact a local solar company to learn more about adding battery storage. Where we live in downtown Santa Barbara, we rarely experience power outages, and thus I’ve made my investments in other high-impact clean energy technologies that make sense for my family. For higher energy users or those living in rural areas where power outages are more common, energy storage may be a worthwhile choice. There is even a new SB Home Power program that offers solar and storage for a monthly savings over buying grid power. They hope to be an affordable option for low-to-moderate income homeowners to go solar with storage as there is no credit check, no financing, and no lien on the property.
If you do get storage, make sure the installer programs the system so that you use your excess solar energy in the evening, and to help support the grid when needed. If you buy a battery exclusively for back-up power, it will be unnecessarily expensive, as well as environmentally damaging to manufacture the battery and not use it in ways that support the grid (which allows renewables to be used more effectively and fossil fuel plants to retire). If you have a battery and don’t know if it is programmed this way, ask your installer!
Resources to Help You Get Home Battery Storage
Solar and storage program: SB Home Power
Swell Energy’s Virtual Power Plant Incentive
7.Boost Energy Efficiency
On top of replacing gas-burning appliances with electric ones, boosting the energy efficiency of your home can go a long way towards reducing costs and emissions. The federal climate bill delivers a new 30% tax credit for adding insulation, energy efficient windows, and other ways to make your home more efficient.
Because of the Central Coast’s moderate climate, modest heating bills, and the fact that many of our homes lack A/C, many energy efficiency measures don’t have as fast of a payback as they might in hotter or colder parts of the country that use more energy. Thus, paradoxically my expert advice is that if you have limited funds, getting rid of a car, getting an EV, or getting a heat pump will have the biggest climate bang for your buck. However, if you have additional resources, energy efficiency measures like insulation and better windows could help you have a more comfortable living environment and save some energy and money. If you can afford to do all of these things at once, you should consider doing the energy efficiency ones first so that you may need a less expensive solar array and smaller heat pump.
Energy efficiency measures with faster paybacks may be to switch to LED lighting, and also to upgrade your refrigerator and other appliances to highly efficient Energy Star models.
Resources to Help You Boost Energy Efficiency
White House: Clean Energy for All
Rewiring America Inflation Reduction Act Savings Calculator
Energy Star’s Energy Efficiency Tax Credit Details
8.Advocate for Solar and Electric in Rental Properties
While renters don’t have as much control over their energy consumption, they can still go car-free, fly less, purchase or lease an EV, and advocate for their landlord and workplaces to install EV chargers (taking advantage of incentive programs). Similarly, condo owners can advocate for EV charging at their complex. While home or work charging is the most convenient, many home renters find that the expanding public EV charging network is sufficient to meet their needs. There are now over 2,000 EV chargers across Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties, and thousands more have approved funding and will be constructed in the next year or two (2023-24).
Renters can also talk to their landlords about electrifying their apartments through the Tri-County Regional Energy Network (3C-REN) multifamily program, or adding solar through California's Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing Program (SOMAH). Converting an entire apartment building could in fact have a much higher positive climate impact relative to a single home! If they pay their own electric bill, renters can choose to opt-up to 100% renewable energy through their local Community Choice provider, such as Central Coast Community Energy.
Resources to Help You Advocate for Solar and Electric in Rental Properties
Tri-County Regional Energy Network (3C-REN) multifamily program
California's Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing Program (SOMAH)
Community Choice programs to opt in to renewable energy for your electricity
9.Make Lifestyle and Dietary Changes
Reducing, reusing, and recycling, cutting food waste, and eating lower on the food chain are simple and easy ways to reduce environmental impact that anyone can do. We recently had a baby, and were amazed at how much baby gear friends passed along to us. We are minimalists with stuff and try to only buy what we really need.
We have added many vegan and vegetarian meals to our weekly repertoire. Eating less meat, particularly factory farmed beef, and buying or growing local produce is another powerful way to reduce carbon emissions. We save a lot of money by eating more plant-based meals and by being avid gardeners. We even turned our front yard from a lawn into a veggie garden and planted many fruit trees. We grow a couple thousand dollars worth of produce every year on our small urban lot. We put the grocery savings toward purchasing more organic produce and fewer, but higher quality, pastured meat and eggs from the farmer’s market. Organic produce is not only healthier for the eater and planet, but also for farmworkers, where pesticide exposure is a major environmental justice issue.
Alarmingly, 40% of all food produced in the US is wasted, much of it at the consumer level. It’s a travesty that all that food and the land, water, fertilizers, and other inputs that go into it are wasted to rot and make methane in a landfill, especially when it could feed needy people. CEC has programs to rescue wasted food and direct it to address food insecurity. My wife has taught me a lot about successful meal planning. We usually plan and buy ingredients for three to five dinners at a time along with breakfast and lunch foods and rarely have food go to waste.
We grow over 50 varieties of fruit, veggies, herbs, and flowers on our small downtown Santa Barbara property, saving over $2,000/yr. Food not lawns!
Song credit: Cisco Adler, "Clouds" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIqGkhepPLI
Resources to Help You Make Lifestyle and Dietary Changes
50 plant-based food blogs
Local Harvest to find Community Supported Agriculture
Get Hooked local seafood subscription
10.Vote and Take Political Action
Vote every election for pro-environment candidates, from local to federal. Elections have consequences. Voting politicians into office that understand and take action on environmental issues is in the end the most important thing we can do to ensure future generations grow up in a zero carbon, sustainable world.
Resources to Help You Vote and Take Political Action
Sign up to help CEC pass local solutions as a climate activist
Thomas Good, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons