If you like your gas furnace, you may not be able to keep it.

The Northampton City Council voted at its Jan. 16 meeting in favor of Ordinance 24.170, a fossil fuel-free construction ordinance in accordance with the state’s Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration program. This program will allow 10 communities, most inside Route 128, to require new construction and major renovation projects to use fossil fuel-free heating systems.

The ordinance received a positive recommendation at the council’s legislative matters subcommittee, but those in attendance were told the ordinance would continue to be edited before reaching the City Council. It was in fact being edited until just hours before the City Council meeting where it was to be voted on.

The ordinance did not return to committee in its final version for public comment, so the only opportunity for members of the public to comment on the updated ordinance was two minutes of public comment each at the council meeting before the vote. I attended the Jan. 16 council meeting and started making my comments but was told I was out of time before finishing my statement.

Here is the text of what I was prepared to say:

As Ben Weil [the city’s Climate Action And Project Administration director] confirms in his response shared with all of the councilors, HERS [Home Energy Rating System] 45 homes do cost more to build than HERS 55 homes, making them less affordable — but he also points out that the council has already adopted the state’s specialized stretch code, so that ship has already sailed and all new construction must be at most HERS 45.

Ben also assures us that though a HERS 45 all-electric home has increased construction costs, the energy cost savings will eventually make up for those increased costs. Except of course if those increased construction costs make the home unaffordable for the buyer and they can’t make the purchase.

My concern is not so much with new construction projects. New construction is sometimes easier and less expensive than a major renovation. With a major renovation, you undergo the time-consuming process of matching the new with the old or demolishing much of the old and retrofitting it.

Bringing an old 2-by-4 framed dwelling up to HERS 45 is likely to be more expensive than just starting from scratch. And what about historical buildings? Do we cast out architectural features and details in favor of a HERS 45 rating? The big old Victorian multifamily homes that surround the college are most likely easier to demo and replace than to retrofit to HERS 45. Except of course in the Elm Street Historic District, where you can’t really demo there.

So let’s look at the advantage energy-wise of an all-electric building that is the goal of this ordinance. About 75% of the electricity in the grid comes from nonrenewable sources, mostly natural gas. Natural gas combined cycle power plants are at best only 65% efficient. Then the electricity is dumped into the grid where another 5% is lost to the resistance of the grid. So gas-fired electric generators are in most cases about 60% efficient.

The natural gas furnace in my basement is close to 90% efficient burning the same fuel that most likely is making the electricity this ordinance wants to make people switch to, at 60% efficiency. Am I missing something?

Now let’s speak to process. I went to a committee meeting last week to make comment on this ordinance. There was a lot of comment and the ordinance was voted out of committee with a positive recommendation, though additional changes were promised. Since then, the ordinance has been modified several times, and in fact as I’m writing this comment, the final rendition of the ordinance was finally posted on the city’s website only hours before the council meeting where it’s to be voted on.

No public exposure of the final version at committee, just your standard two minutes to comment before the council meeting. And remember this is a special demonstration program that only 10 communities in Massachusetts will be allowed to participate in this experiment. So much for transparency …

This entire endeavor only makes sense if the majority of the electricity in the grid is from renewable sources and there is an unlimited supply of it. No one is in a position to tell us just when that is going to happen, but when it does there is a good chance there will be unicorns grazing next to the cows at Smith Vocational.

David Murphy lives in Northampton.