The Trump administration is suing two California cities over ordinances that ban the usage of pure gasoline piping and home equipment in new buildings, although each cities mentioned they haven’t enforced these bans in a number of years.
In a lawsuit filed Jan. 5 in U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California, the Division of Justice mentioned pure gasoline bans within the cities of Petaluma and Morgan Hill are “radical measures” that drive up prices for shoppers and battle with federal vitality coverage.
Pure gasoline, which is principally methane, is a serious reason behind local weather change when it leaks out with out being burned. When it’s burned in stoves, the emissions are a number one supply of smog and indoor air air pollution and have been linked to well being points reminiscent of respiratory infections and elevated childhood bronchial asthma.
Morgan Hill, in Santa Clara County, banned pure gasoline for brand new buildings in 2019. Petaluma, in Sonoma County, adopted with the same ordinance in 2021.
“These pure gasoline bans damage American households and are outright unlawful,” Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi mentioned in a press release. “Alongside the Division of Vitality, the Division of Justice is working across the clock to finish radical environmentalist insurance policies, restore frequent sense, and unleash American vitality.”
The lawsuit stems from a 2025 government order issued on President Trump’s first day in workplace titled “Unleashing American Vitality,” which seeks to take away “burdensome and ideologically motivated” Biden-era vitality rules and maximize the event of home assets — notably fossil fuels reminiscent of oil, gasoline and coal. It vows to “safeguard the American individuals’s freedom to select from quite a lot of items and home equipment” and directs Bondi to take motion to cease all measures she deems unlawful.
Pure gasoline bans have turn into a political scorching button in California, with cities reminiscent of Berkeley transferring to part out the fossil gasoline in favor of electrification. Buildings are liable for a few quarter of the state’s greenhouse gasoline emissions, in keeping with the California Vitality Fee.
The grievance asks the court docket to rule that federal legislation overrides the cities’ pure gasoline bans, and to completely block their enforcement.
However officers in each cities mentioned they haven’t enforced their ordinances for the reason that U.S. ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals struck down Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation ban in 2023, although neither has been formally repealed.
Petaluma “has not denied any undertaking or allow functions based mostly on its electrification rules, and has permitted and is processing growth tasks that embody gasoline infrastructure,” mentioned Eric Danly, Petaluma’s metropolis lawyer, in an e mail. “In any occasion, town has noticed that builders have usually opted voluntarily to put in electrical utilities.”
Officers in Morgan Hill equally mentioned that town “follows federal legislation, and can proceed to take action,” and has permitted current tasks with gasoline infrastructure.
“Whereas we’re nonetheless reviewing the grievance, this lawsuit seems to be an pointless effort to require town to observe legal guidelines with which town is already in compliance,” Morgan Hill Metropolis Atty. Donald Larkin mentioned.
In the meantime, White Home officers mentioned pure gasoline bans “deny shoppers dependable, resilient and reasonably priced vitality.”
“When states and cities choose winners and losers, shoppers pay the value,” learn a press release from Adam Gustafson, principal deputy assistant lawyer normal with the Justice Division’s Surroundings and Pure Assets Division. “Our grievance seeks to revive client selection so that folks and companies can construct in a approach that matches their wants greatest.”
It’s not the primary time the Trump administration has taken goal at California’s progressive insurance policies in favor of the oil and gasoline business. The president final yr moved to kill California’s auto emission requirements and aim of phasing out gas-powered automobiles; canceled funding for wind, photo voltaic and hydrogen tasks; and opened up the Pacific shoreline for offshore drilling, amongst many different efforts.
However pure gasoline rules have additionally proved controversial within the state. In June, air regulators in Southern California rejected a proposal that might have imposed surcharges on pure gas-powered water heaters and furnaces — a transfer supporters mentioned would have lowered air pollution and improved air high quality within the nation’s smoggiest air basin.
