Justice Department Announces Actions Advancing Two Challenges to State and Local Natural Gas Bans in Colorado and Illinois

The Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) last week received a favorable decision regarding its statement of interest filing in a Colorado case. ENRD also filed an amicus brief opposing a natural gas ban by a Chicago-area municipality.

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. In recent years, a growing patchwork of state and local regulations concerning the energy use and efficiency of appliances 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 Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of ENRD.  “The Department of Justice will continue prioritizing the fight against radical state and local overreach.”

The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado last week allowed to advance a challenge to certain Colorado and Denver regulations, holding as plausible that the measures are preempted by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). Earlier last month, ENRD filed a statement of interest in the case which expressed support for the challenge against the Colorado and Denver provisions. The court agreed with ENRD’s argument that if municipalities try to set building-wide energy use targets — which are largely a result of how much energy appliances in the building use — such efforts have an “impermissible connection with” the energy use and efficiency of appliances that federal standards already regulate.