Dive Brief:

  • A U.S. district court last month granted the village of Oak Park, Illinois, summary judgment against a coalition of gas-appliance supporters who argued that a 2023 ban on gas appliances in new construction conflicts with the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). The ruling, issued by Judge Franklin Valderrama, was made public in a court order.
  • Judge Valderrama determined that Oak Park’s building code bans appliances based on the type of energy they use, whereas EPCA sets appliance efficiency standards. Because Oak Park is not establishing efficiency standards, the judge ruled there is no conflict with federal statute, and therefore EPCA’s preemption clause does not apply.
  • “Because the Ordinance here regulates the types of energy or fuel that covered appliances may use in certain buildings, rather than establishing or affecting the appliances’ federally regulated energy-efficiency or energy-use performance standards, the Ordinance does not ‘concern’ energy use under EPCA,” Valderrama wrote in the opinion.

Dive Insight:

Courts in other jurisdictions have reached similar conclusions. For example, a 2025 ruling in New York federal court upheld New York City’s Local Law 154, which effectively bans gas appliances in new construction by limiting the amount of carbon dioxide a building may emit. That approach differs from Berkeley’s, which directly targeted gas piping.

Gas-appliance interests have also secured victories. In a widely watched case, Berkeley, California—which enacted the first local gas appliance ban in the country in 2019—agreed in a 2024 settlement to rescind the ban after an appeals court said it conflicted with EPCA. The court characterized the piping prohibition as a “circuitous” end-run around federal law.

Several other California localities that had modeled their gas appliance bans on Berkeley’s ordinance have since rescinded their own measures. The list includes Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Encinitas, and Santa Cruz, according to court filings and press reports.

With federal courts split on the legality of such bans, U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., introduced legislation late last year that would prohibit state and local governments from banning gas appliances based on the type or source of energy delivered. The bill, known as the Energy Choice Act, has about 160 sponsors, most of them Republicans. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate in June by Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va.

“This legislation will prevent these one-size-fits-all mandates from wreaking further havoc on small businesses and their local economies as electricity demands continue to break peak records,” Louis Bertolotti, principal of federal government relations at the National Federation of Independent Business, said in a statement when the House bill was introduced.

It is not yet clear when the House will take up the Energy Choice Act. The bill’s future remains uncertain, but its sponsors argue that a uniform federal standard is needed to resolve the patchwork of local rules.

Vicki Scaman, president of the Oak Park Village Board, said the court victory validates the locality’s approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “We must move away from reliance on petroleum,” she said in a press release from Earthjustice, an environmental law group that supports the ban.

The coalition that sought to have Oak Park’s ordinance struck down did not indicate whether it would appeal the decision. Legal observers note that the issue may ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court. “Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court may have the final word on how to apply the EPCA to local natural gas appliance bans,” a Legal Newsline post said.