The Chronicle– Supporters of an initiative to curtail Washington’s movement away from natural gas use in homes and other buildings rallied on the streets of Centralia ahead of a deadline to submit enough signatures to qualify the proposal for the November ballot.

“It’s about consumer choice, but it’s also super regressive in communities like ours where a lot of people in Lewis County rely on natural gas as a heating source,” Abbarno said. “So I think it hits people, especially the people who can least afford to pay for these types of policies. This is kind of an environmental policy that’s operating in a silo without any recognition of the economic impacts on the poor and marginalized communities.”

Abbarno, who said he uses natural gas in his Centralia home, said consumers would have few options to pay the conversion costs to other energy sources. A representative for the Building Industry Association of Washington estimated that costs could range from $40,000 to $70,000 for the average home conversion.

“If you can’t afford that conversion, what’s the state going to do, are they going to start policing your ability to stay warm?” Abbarno said.

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