Californians Get to Keep Their Gas Stoves — For Now
It appears to be the judiciary’s job these days to save California from itself. A federal appeals court ruled this week that the outright ban on new gas stoves in Berkeley, California, is illegal and that it violates the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which gives Congress control over appliance restrictions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit argued that the EPCA, which was passed in 1975, clearly prohibits states and localities from regulating “energy efficiency, energy use, or water use” in a way that contradicts a federal energy conservation standard.
Berkeley’s policymakers tried to get around this law by sugarcoating the gas stove ban’s language as a ban on new gas piping and hiding it in a building code. But Judge Patrick Bumatay, writing for the court, said the intention behind the effort was obvious.
“By its plain text and structure, EPCA’s preemption provision encompasses building codes that regulate natural gas use by covered products. And by preventing such appliances from using natural gas, the new Berkeley building code does exactly that,” he wrote. “States and localities can’t skirt the text of broad preemption provisions by doing indirectly what Congress says they can’t do directly.”
Berkeley passed its gas stove ban in 2019, becoming the first city in the United States to do so. Since then, multiple cities and states have followed suit and implemented their own restrictions on natural gas appliances. Unsurprisingly, most of those cities are also in California: San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles, for example, restrict new buildings from installing gas appliances.
It should go without saying that these bans are outrageous. They provide next to no environmental benefit and deprive consumers of their right to choose a product that works best for them. In Calshut
ifornia, for example, 70% of homes use gas appliances. Is the state going to shut down their gas pipelines next?
It wouldn’t come as a surprise at all if California officials tried. But at least for now, the courts are standing in their way.