Berkeley agrees to walk back ban on new natural-gas piping

After a years-long legal battle that has garnered national attention, Berkeley’s natural-gas ban has fizzled out.

As part of an agreement last week to settle a lawsuit from the California Restaurant Assn., Berkeley agreed to immediately halt enforcement of its first-in-thenation ban on installing natural-gas piping in newly constructed buildings.

Berkeley has also “agreed to take steps to repeal the ordinance,” said Jot Condie, president of the restaurant association. “Every city and county in California that has passed a similar ordinance should follow their lead,” Condie said in a statement.

Farimah Faiz Brown, Berkeley’s city attorney, confirmed that the city has ceased enforcement of the ban. Brown said cities are “uniquely responsible for protecting their residents” from the climate-change harms posed by burning natural gas.

“Berkeley will continue to be a leader on climate action,” Brown said in a statement.

Fighting climate change has been a primary argument put forward by proponents of such bans.

Natural gas burned in homes and businesses accounts for about 10% of California’s planet-warming pollution. State plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 have relied on phasing out natural gas appliances amid a 90% reduction in demand for natural gas.

Condie noted that climate change remains a concern but said the policy was not the right solution.

Gas ban supporters have also cited public health as a rationale. A 2023 study from Stanford University and the nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy found that cooking with gas stoves can expose people to roughly the same cancer risk as breathing secondhand cigarette smoke.

Berkeley was the first U.S. city to approve a ban on gas hookups in most new homes, in 2019. More than 70 California cities and counties — including L.A. — followed suit and effectively banned new gas appliances.

The fate of those policies, as well as dozens outside the state, is unclear.

In an April 2023 ruling, a federal appeals court sided with the restaurant association against Berkeley’s ordinance, ruling that the city could not preempt federal statutes in attempting to regulate the piping that carries natural gas into a building as a way to regulate the appliances themselves.