Bay Area officials have announced a ban on the use of natural gas-powered furnaces and water heaters in order to lessen the impact on the city’s air quality and resident’s health, “particularly in communities of color.“On Wednesday, San Francisco’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board of Directors said in a press release that they had “adopted amendments to Regulation 9, Rules 4 and 6 to eliminate emissions of nitrogen oxides, or NOx, from residential and commercial natural gas furnaces and water heaters in the Bay Area by requiring new appliances to be zero-NOx.“According to the environmental board, “Emissions from natural gas building appliances account for a similar amount of NOx pollution as passenger vehicles in the Ba …