DOJ Escalates Lawsuit Against State, Local Natural-Gas Restrictions

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced legal challenges to local restrictions on natural gas in Colorado and Illinois, saying they threaten the gas stoves, furnaces, and water heaters Americans still use.

The Oct.5 move is the department’s latest step in a series of lawsuits and court filings against state and local natural-gas limits, after cases this year targeting bans in Morris Township in New Jersey, and Morgan Hill and Petaluma in California.

“At issue in both cases is the ability of American families and businesses to continue relying on federally regulated gas stoves, furnaces, water heaters, dryers, and other appliances,” the DOJ said in its statement. 

It said that in recent years, there is a growing patchwork of state and local regulations concerning the energy use and efficiency of appliances that threatens to undermine those national standards.

“These efforts to support consumer choice and cut energy costs deliver on the President’s commitment to unleash American energy and protect consumer choice,” said Adam Gustafson, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Energy and Natural Resources Division.  

“The Department of Justice will continue prioritizing the fight against radical state and local overreach.”

Both cases involve the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which sets federal energy-efficiency standards for appliances and can pre-empt state or local rules that regulate the same ground.

In Colorado, property and business groups are challenging state and Denver building-energy rules, saying they effectively restrict gas-powered appliances already covered by federal standards.

The DOJ backed property groups’ argument in a filing last month, saying local governments cannot use building-wide energy targets to impose their own requirements on federally regulated appliances.

The department said that the court agreed with its argument that if municipalities try to set building-wide energy use targets, such efforts have an “impermissible connection with” the energy use and efficiency of appliances that federal standards already regulate.

On Sept. 30, U.S. District Judge Regina Rodriguez issued the order allowing part of the Colorado challenge to proceed.

In Illinois, the DOJ last week urged a federal appeals court to strike down the requirement of Oak Park, a suburb just west of Chicago, that new buildings be all-electric, effectively preventing them from using natural-gas furnaces, water heaters, and other gas appliances.

Clean Energy Choice Coalition, a group that supports allowing consumers and builders to choose between electricity, natural gas, and other energy sources, is challenging the rule, saying the village has gone too far because those appliances are already regulated under federal energy law.

In April, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Morris Township in New Jersey over its ban on natural gas and other fossil fuels in newly constructed buildings, the department said in an April 1 statement.

The ban “drives up energy costs for everyday American consumers and weakens our Nation’s energy dominance,” the DOJ said at the time.

“Such policies reflect a radical left effort to outlaw federally regulated gas stoves, furnaces, water heaters, dryers, and other appliances that American families rely on daily to cook their meals and heat their homes.”

The lawsuit challenged an ordinance the township passed in 2022.

The ordinance said that beginning Sept. 1, 2022, officials shall not issue a construction permit for any new apartment building with 12 or more units unless the building is all-electric.

The ordinance defines an all-electric building as one that does not use natural gas, propane, or oil heaters or their associated delivery systems—boilers, piping systems, fixtures, and infrastructure—to meet its energy needs.

In January, the DOJ sued over the natural gas bans in Morgan Hill and Petaluma in California.

Both had ordinances banning natural gas infrastructure and appliances in new construction.

“These natural gas bans hurt American families and are outright illegal,” then-Attorney General Pamela Bondi said at the time.

“Alongside the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice is working around the clock to end radical environmentalist policies, restore common sense, and unleash American energy.”

The Epoch Times has contacted officials from the Village of Oak Park and the City of Denver for comment.

Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.