America’s cities and states are increasingly turning toward building electrification as a tool to further decarbonization goals. According to the EPA, building operations account for nearly 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption and approximately 30 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions. Switching over to equipment such as induction stovetops and heat pumps, coupled with the use of renewable energy and efficiency measures, could bring those numbers closer to zero. In the last year, in a riposte to the growing upswell, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill to block the Consumer Product Safety Commission from using federal funds to ban gas stoves, and litigation has turned the courtroom into a battleground in the race to decarbonize.
In April 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit—the court is headquartered in San Francisco and encompasses much of the western United States—ruled in favor of plaintiff California Restaurant Association against defendant City of Berkeley, which in 2019 had passed the country’s first prohibition on the installation of natural gas pipes in new construction. The Ninth Circuit argued that the local ban is incongruent with the federal government’s Energy Policy and Conservation Act and infringed on its exclusive power to regulate gas appliances. Last May, the City of Berkeley filed a petition for a rehearing and was granted an amicus brief by the Ninth Circuit, though the court ultimately struck down the petition in January.
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