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D.C. bill would offer incentives to switch from gas stoves to electric

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D.C. bill would offer incentives to switch from gas stoves to electric


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The District would be a part of different cities and states searching for to swap gasoline stoves and different fossil fuel-dependent units for electrical home equipment, underneath a invoice launched Friday that’s certain so as to add to a tradition struggle already simmering in America’s kitchens.

The measure would incentivize the shift from pure gasoline to electrical through the use of “lots of of hundreds of thousands” of {dollars} in federal funds, together with tax incentives, to encourage folks to change, mentioned D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), one of many invoice’s co-sponsors.

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The invoice — initially submitted late final yr — would goal moderate- and low-income households, permitting these making lower than $80,000 a yr to exchange their gasoline stoves and heating home equipment with out incurring any out-of-pocket prices, together with set up. The measure additionally would add an extra allowing payment for individuals who set up new fossil fuel-burning home equipment in renovations.

“We expect it’s a daring proposal,” Allen mentioned in an interview.

Gasoline stoves in kitchens pose a threat to public well being and the planet, analysis finds

Allen, who holds a grasp’s diploma in public well being, mentioned his fundamental curiosity in selling the laws is to enhance the air high quality in folks’s properties, significantly for low-income residents and people in public housing. The invoice units a aim of retrofitting at the least 30,000 low-income households by December 2040, with at the least 5,000 conversions by December 2025.

Renewable power advocates and environmentalists have argued that gasoline stoves pose a menace not solely to indoor air high quality, however to the planet by contributing to the greenhouse gases that entice warmth in Earth’s ambiance. A latest examine from Stanford College discovered that the home equipment launch way more methane than the Environmental Safety Company estimates in addition to nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant that may set off bronchial asthma.

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The District invoice — which is co-sponsored by greater than half of D.C. Council members — follows related measures within the area designed to wean the nation from fossil fuels. The more and more heated battle has performed out principally alongside partisan strains nationally, with a number of blue states transferring to shift away from gasoline home equipment and a number of other crimson states appearing to guard them.

What we’re actually combating about after we battle about gasoline stoves

Montgomery County unanimously handed a measure in November that will part out using pure gasoline in new buildings in favor of all-electric buildings starting in December 2026.

Lawmakers within the Virginia Normal Meeting, in the meantime, have launched at the least two measures that will do the other. A invoice sponsored by Del. Israel O’Quinn (R-Washington) to guard “retail provide selection” would block localities from adopting any ordinance that limits or prohibits clients from utilizing pure gasoline or passing any regulation that will deny constructing permits primarily based on the utility supplier. The measure, which handed the Home, is now earlier than a Senate committee.

Virginia state Sen. Joseph D. Morrissey (R-Richmond) proposed an analogous invoice final month to counter efforts by environmentalists to restrict entry to pure gasoline. Morrissey mentioned his intention was to guard industries that depend on pure gasoline and counter limits on residential use.

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“I consider pure gasoline as clear power and … these companies want the pure gasoline to plan for the longer term,” Morrissey mentioned. He mentioned he additionally supported its use by residential customers.

However Morrissey requested that his invoice be stricken Monday, on the request of trade teams advocating for it, saying backers want to put forth a stronger invoice subsequent yr.

Critics, together with Republicans reminiscent of Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), see governmental overreach within the latest push to all-electric development, arguing that the phaseout applications that began a number of years in the past in California are preludes to an eventual ban. In addition to decreasing client selection within the kitchen, they argue that transferring towards all-electric properties may go away folks on the mercy of 1 type of power. Cruz prompt there may be extra politics than sturdy information making a hyperlink between gasoline stoves and poor well being, claiming that the latest research had been underwritten by “radical environmental activists searching for to gin up deceptive, false research” as a part of a plan to ban fossil fuels.

The controversy took off early final month, when U.S. Client Product Security Fee member Richard Trumka Jr. referred to as gasoline stoves “a hidden hazard” in an interview with Bloomberg Information. Trumka mentioned “any choice was on the desk,” together with a potential ban — a declare that the fee’s chair mentioned he opposed and had not been put earlier than the fee.

Allen additionally mentioned no ban plan was afoot in D.C.

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“I feel it’s vital to recollect nobody’s coming in to remove your gasoline range,” he mentioned.



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Washington, D.C

Pickup plunges into icy Potomac after crash on Arlington Memorial Bridge

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Pickup plunges into icy Potomac after crash on Arlington Memorial Bridge


A pickup truck plunged into the icy Potomac River after a collision with another vehicle on the outbound lanes of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, D.C. Fire and EMS said.

The white pickup crashed through the railing just before 7 p.m. on a snowy evening. It’s submerged in the water.

The Metropolitan Police Department Harbor Unit is at the scene.

One person was removed from the truck and is receiving advanced life support on the shore.

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Two people from the other car involved in the collision suffered minor injuries.

Traffic came to a stop on the bridge, which has been closed. U.S. Park Police is diverting traffic.

Drivers are asked to avoid the Arlington Memorial Bridge, Rock Creek Parkway and Ohio Drive.

Stay with News4 and NBCWashington.com for more on this developing story.

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Indiana students embark on trip to D.C. for inaugural festivities

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Indiana students embark on trip to D.C. for inaugural festivities


A dozen students from northwest Indiana flew to Washington D.C. Thursday to experience festivities around the presidential inauguration and learn more about the democratic process.

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From Indiana to D.C.

What we know:

The students were selected by the ECIER Foundation, which supports youth development and awards scholarships.

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They won the trip to [the Capitol after competing in mock political campaigns and innovation competitions.

The foundation provided their winter gear, travel accessories and custom luggage covers.

D.C. agenda

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What’s next:

The students will visit memorials and monuments and meet other students from around the country while getting an up-close Washington experience.

The group will also meet privately with Rep. Frank Mrvan, who serves their district. 

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While the students will not get to attend the inauguration ceremony itself, they will get to go to an inaugural ball in their honor.

What they’re saying:

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Students expressed their excitement ahead of the trip to the nation’s capitol.

“I am very eager to learn about all the branches of our government,” said 9th grader Alejandro Muniz. 

Marianna Owens said she looks forward to seeing historical landmarks

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“I am definitely excited to be able to witness the experience and not only that, I’m excited to visit the MLK Memorial and the Pentagon,” Owens said.

The Source: The information in this story came from interviews with students and details from the ECIER Foundation.

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Welcome to Washington: On the Eve of the Inauguration, Monumental Advice

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Welcome to Washington: On the Eve of the Inauguration, Monumental Advice


Image by William Rudolph.

I love watching the brides pose for photos by the Lincoln Memorial and the teenagers wriggle through TikTok choreography near the Washington Monument. Their modern hopes breathe life into the centuries-old wisdom of our capital city.

I have lived in Washington DC for years and still can’t get enough of it. On sunny Saturday morning walks, my pace is casual, but the insights are profound. DC is a living lesson about what George Washington described as “the last great experiment for promoting human happiness.” The Inauguration brings new people to Washington DC and I hope they will love and learn from the city as much as I do.

One of my favorite monuments is near the Capitol. Two iron cranes stand together. Their wings thrust upward, and barbed wire falls from their beaks. Around them is a complicated mix of names: Japanese Americans who died fighting for us in World War II, and the internment camps to which their families and friends had been forced. Yet I am fiercely proud to be an American when, amidst these names, I read President Reagan’s words: “Here we admit a wrong. Here we affirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law.” Few countries I’ve lived in have the strength to admit such a grave national error.

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That urge for improvement is in our national genes. As the Constitution states, we’re constantly trying to “form a more perfect union.”

Sure enough, a few miles away under a white marble dome stands a statue of Thomas Jefferson. He, too, speaks to us of striving for perfection: “…Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened … institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.”

While I respect the somber challenge of those words, I love his next, more whimsical, sentence: “We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

From a breezy hill in northeast Washington DC, President Lincoln also challenges us. It’s the cottage where he and his family escaped the city’s summer heat, though Lincoln daily commuted to the White House. His dusty horseback ride revealed the stakes of the Civil War: wounded soldiers bumping along in ambulances and former slaves surviving in hastily built camps after escaping behind Union lines.

Lincoln welcomed allies and adversaries alike to the cottage for advice, sometimes looking out from the veranda over the not-yet-completed Capitol and Washington Monument. As a modern visitor 150 years later, I can stand in the same place. The buildings are completed. But which of Lincoln’s hopes and fears are still in progress?

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At a newer memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr offers optimism about the timescale of our national effort: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

At an even newer memorial closer to the Capitol, President Eisenhower puts a worldwide spin on our work of becoming a more perfect union: “We look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm and fixed purpose – the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law prevails.”

Strolling through the city, I love listening to leaders from different periods of our great experiment. I hope our elected representatives will as well.



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