Trump Administration Sues to Stop Gas Appliance Bans in California Cities, Citing ‘Crushing’ Costs

The Trump administration is suing to stop two California cities from enforcing bans on gas-powered appliances in new buildings, reports Robert Freedman in Smart Cities Dive.

The city of Berkeley lost a legal challenge over a similar ban in 2023, prompting it and several other California cities to rescind their bans on gas appliances. 

The government argues that appliances approved under the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) should remain available to consumers. “EPCA preempts not only state and local regulations that are stricter than (and therefore would effectively supersede) a federal standard, but more broadly any regulation ‘concerning the energy efficiency, energy use, or water use of’ products subject to a federal standard,” the lawsuit states.

Appliances approved under ECPA include “as-fired commercial warm air furnaces, commercial packaged boilers, commercial storage water heaters, instantaneous water heaters and hot water supply boilers, among others.”

A New York City policy takes a different approach by restricting how much carbon dioxide a building can emit rather than targeting gas appliances directly.

A bill making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives would end gas appliance bans by making it illegal for states and cities to ban an energy service connection based on the type of energy to be delivered.