Celebrity chef Jose Andres will be allowed to use gas stoves in his new restaurant despite California’s ban. Because he would have had to reconfigure his roster otherwise.
A change in California’s building code, imposed from January, means that all new buildings must be fully electric in order to lower nitrogen oxide emissions in the state.
Lawyers for the real estate group that will house the restaurant have threatened legal action if Andrés Zitina’s project cannot have a gas stove.
Zaytinya relies on “traditional cooking methods that require gas appliances to achieve their distinctively complex flavours,” Anna Shimko, a lawyer for Simon Property Group, writes in a letter threatening a lawsuit.
“Without a gas connection and appliances, Zytinya would be forced to change her signature five-star menu, which she is not willing to do,” she wrote to the city in April.
Celebrity chef Jose Andres will be allowed to use gas stoves in his new restaurant
Lawyers for the real estate group that will house the restaurant have threatened legal action if Jose Andrés Zaytina’s project cannot have a gas stove.
Arguing for the exemption, she claimed that the Stanford Shopping Center, where Zeytinya will be located, applied for the project in 2019 and received approvals from the city’s Architectural Review Board including the gas line, which was installed in 2021.
“SPG is confident that the application of the new Reach Act in this context is legally flawed and unconstitutional, and therefore SPG is prepared to take all necessary action to enforce its legal rights to use the gas facilities within the EE Building.”
“The restaurant is likely to move its location out of town if it is forced to compromise the caliber of its cuisine and its reputation,” said the lawyer.
“This would be an unfortunate loss for the residents of Palo Alto, as well as an irreparable loss for which SPG would have to seek compensation.”
Faced with the legal dispute, Palo Alto’s managers gave in and granted the restaurant permission to use natural gas.
The building is “in a unique position, as parts of the project were either built or under construction when the city’s all-electric new building rule went into effect” so “the city and the mall agreed that this one project should be able to move forward,” city employees said in a statement. On May 16th, the gas service is in line with long-established project plans.
This comes after the US recently considered banning all gas stoves due to health and safety concerns.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced earlier this month that it plans to take action to address pollution from gas stoves, which have been linked to higher cases of asthma.
In a statement to Bloomberg News, Richard Trumka Jr., the agency’s commissioner, called gas stoves a “hidden danger.”
California is set to phase out new natural gas furnaces and heaters by 2030 after approving a proposal from the California Air Resources Board (CARB), making it the first US state to take such action.
The proposal, included in the 2022 State Implementation Plan (SIP) strategy, is to combat nitrogen oxide pollution in the state — homes and buildings generate four times more ozone than all of California’s gas power plants combined.
However, the plan would cost about $96.2 billion to implement and new homeowners would have to pay for expensive electrical options moving forward.
The report comes just a month after California announced a ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars.
“While this strategy will clean the air for all Californians, it will also result in reduced emissions in the many low-income and disadvantaged communities that experience higher levels of persistent air pollution,” CARB President Leanne Randolph said in a statement.
But to truly meet ozone standards, California needs more federal action to remove harmful diesel pollution primarily from federally controlled sources, from locomotives and ocean-going ships to planes, all of which are concentrated in communities that still bear the brunt of poverty. air quality.
“We simply cannot provide clean air to Californians without the federal government doing its part.”
The new ban is part of California Gov. Gavin Newson’s climate efforts and aims to comply with EPA regulations to limit atmospheric ozone to 70 parts per billion — the 21 million people who live in the state exceed that standard.
