Even though a court struck down Berkeley, California’s pioneering gas ban in 2023, similar lawsuits against electric building and appliance standards are flailing.
Link copied to clipboard
The first entirely electric, zero-emission multifamily apartment building in Troy, New York, under construction in January. The state’s All-Electric Buildings Law is being challenged in court. (Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)
Policies to transition buildings off polluting fossil gas are holding up in federal courts across the U.S. That’s a big win for local governments looking to spur electrification, given that these types of regulations suffered a major setback just a few years ago.
In 2023, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Berkeley, California’s pioneering ban on gas hookups in new buildings. A panel of three federal judges sided with the California Restaurant Association in its assertion that the ordinance conflicted with the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act, a 1975 law that prevents cities and states from setting appliance efficiency standards that differ from those of the U.S. government.
