The Bay Area Air District board of directors split on a decision to proceed with new rules to ban the sale and installation of natural gas water heaters in homes starting on Jan. 1. The rule, approved by the air board in 2023, will cost homeowners an average of $3,500 more to buy and install an electric heat pump water heater instead of a traditional gas-powered one. The board, most of whom are elected city councilmembers, county supervisors, and other local officials, weighed the environmental benefits of the rule, which requires homeowners to replace traditional water heater with electric heat pumps when they break or need to be replaced. The new regulations would prevent between 37 and 85 deaths a year and potentially prevent 15,000 asthma attacks a year in the Bay Area.