Zero-emission, all-electric home building is endangered because the City Council of Arvada is supporting a false narrative from a builder and developer which claim that it is too difficult and expensive to build and market homes without dependence on natural gas pipelines. This is in spite of the fact that the Geos neighborhood in Arvada already has 28 affordable homes that are zero-emission and all-electric.  There are no natural gas pipelines in the first phase of the Geos neighborhood. 

The original developer planned to build 200+ more homes free from fossil fuels, but was forced to sell the undeveloped land because of divorce proceedings.  The new developer made a press release indicating that building to the standards of the original Geos homes would continue, but went back on its word by installing natural gas pipelines in the next phase of development.

After 12 state legislators signed a joint letter asking the new developer to reconsider, the City Council of Arvada responded with a letter that repeated the builder and developer's talking points without verifying them.  The City Council of Arvada claimed that the Geos neighborhood went bankrupt building without natural gas pipelines, when in fact the developer was forced to sell due to divorce proceedings.  The Colorado Sun published an article about the fight over natural gas at Geos at https://coloradosun.com/2021/09/09/electrification-of-homes-for-climate-change/

Natural gas is primarily methane, and stopping methane emissions is urgently needed to prevent runaway climate change, according to the scientific consensus of the latest IPCC report.  Building new homes without any need for methane pipelines would help stop methane emissions.

Please sign this petition to demand that zero-emission, all-electric home building continue as an important part of meeting the challenge of the climate crisis, and to reject the false narrative that it is too difficult to build homes without dependence on fossil fuels.