Gas bans regularly pop up in headlines nationwide. Sometimes the news captures advances, such as when another jurisdiction mandates that new construction be built all-electric. Other news is of setbacks, typically lawsuits filed by gas and construction groups to block such rules.
These legal challenges primarily center around a single question, said Amy Turner, director of the Cities Climate Law Initiative at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law: How much does the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act preempt local and state building electrification rules?
The answer is pivotal for the dozens of cities and few states that have restricted gas hookups in new construction to stymie growing greenhouse gas emissions — and for the jurisdictions still hoping to pass such rules.
Even if EPCA-focused litigation doesn’t ultimately succeed in blocking gas bans, Turner said she doesn’t foresee well-funded gas industry players halting their pushback against them. “I would expect them to take up a different line of argument,” she said. “This is existential for them.”
Here’s a play-by-play of the biggest news about gas bans and related litigation since a federal appeals court overturned Berkeley, California’s first-in-the-nation rule in April 2023. Cities and states across the country will undoubtedly be watching for what happens next as they chart their decarbonization path forward.
Gas bans and legal challenges in 2023
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April 17A federal appeals court overturns Berkeley, California’s first-in-the-nation ordinance banning gas in new construction, agreeing with the California Restaurant Association that the city bypassed federal energy regulations.
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May 2New York becomes the first state to pass a law banning gas in most new buildings through provisions in its fiscal year 2024 budget. Not included in the law is the option for cities and counties to override the ban, which some climate activists worried about before the law’s passage.
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May 22In Washington state, a coalition including gas and building groups files a lawsuit in federal district court to block state building codes adopted in 2022 that require heat pumps in new residential and commercial construction, arguing that the codes violate the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
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May 24Washington state building code officials vote to delay the heat pump rules for 120 days after their original effective date of July 1, 2023, and begin revising the building codes to reduce the risk of their being overturned.
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May 31Berkeley files a petition for the federal appeals court to rehear the case regarding its gas ban. The city argues that the court misinterpreted the federal law the city was accused of violating. Less than two weeks later, the U.S. files an amicus brief in support of Berkeley’s request.
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July 10Eugene, Oregon, reverses its ban on natural gas hookups in new, low-rise residential construction. Local opponents, largely funded by the state’s largest gas utility, had gathered enough signatures for a citywide vote on the ban, and city officials said they were concerned about legal threats arising from the Berkeley decision.
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Aug. 3Gas and building groups drop their lawsuit to block new Washington state building codes requiring heat pumps in new construction, citing state officials’ work to modify the rules. A federal judge in July had denied the industry groups’ request to vacate the codes.
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Sept. 8Twenty-six local government leaders in California send a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom urging him to urgently pursue statewide standards that would require new buildings to be all-electric. The letter says Newsom must step in with a “unified state standard,” otherwise “many municipalities will be forced to backtrack on progress cutting emissions from buildings, due to insufficient resources to fight frivolous and opportunistic lawsuits."
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Oct. 12Gas and construction trade groups sue to block New York state’s recently passed gas ban, arguing it violates EPCA.
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Nov. 28The Washington State Building Code Council approves revised codes that incentivize builders to choose electric heat pumps but erase language mandating heat pumps for heating water and rooms in homes.
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Dec. 29A coalition of construction contractor and heating fuels trade groups files a lawsuit against New York City in the federal court for the Southern District of New York, seeking to block the city from enforcing a law that effectively requires many new buildings to be all-electric. The groups argue the city’s Local Law 154 — which passed in 2021 and first went into effect for some building types on Jan. 1, 2024 — violates EPCA and is contrary to the public interest. The law firm representing the plaintiffs is the same one that’s representing the groups seeking to block Berkeley and New York state’s gas bans.
Gas bans and legal challenges in 2024
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Jan. 2The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denies Berkeley’s request for a rehearing of the case regarding its gas ban. The move leaves Berkeley with only one course of action if it wants to move the case forward in the court system: Try to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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March 22The California Restaurant Association announces that Berkeley will immediately stop enforcing its ordinance while lawmakers go through the monthslong process to repeal it, per a settlement agreement between CRA and the city.
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Oct. 17A coalition of business and labor groups and a gas utility filed lawsuits challenging building electrification laws in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Montgomery County passed legislation in 2022 mandating the county executive to issue building standards by the end of 2026 that require new construction to be all-electric. The law made Montgomery County one of the first Maryland counties to adopt gas-ban legislation, according to the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club. D.C. passed a similar law in 2022 requiring the mayor to create, by the end of 2026, net-zero building standards that prevent many new and substantially renovated buildings from using on-site fuel combustion for space and water heating. The groups challenging the Montgomery County law in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland are the National Federation of Independent Business, Washington Gas Light Co., the Restaurant Law Center, the National Association of Home Builders of the United States, the Maryland Building Industry Association, the Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington Laborers’ District Council and Teamsters Local 96. The National Apartment Association joined those groups in suing D.C. as well. They argue that the federal EPCA preempts the jurisdictions’ gas bans.
Is our timeline missing anything? To suggest additions, contact [email protected]
Editor’s note: The Oct. 17, 2024, entry to this timeline has been updated to reflect that business and labor groups and a gas utility challenged both Washington, D.C.’s and Montgomery County’s gas bans.
