Since April, Oak Park has been defending its ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings in federal court.
A coalition of natural gas and construction interest groups say the village violated federal energy statutes when it adopted a building code ordinance requiring all new construction to be built without any natural gas hookups. The suit alleges that the blanket ban on natural gas hookups is illegal because it conflicts with federal guidelines, namely the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which limit how state and local governments can manage the use of federally regulated energy sources.
“EPCA’s express preemption provisions do preempt the ordinance,” the plaintiffs wrote in an October filing. “EPCA preempts any law ‘concerning the … energy use’ of consumer and industrial appliances and the Ordinance’s ban on natural-gas appliances plainly concerns the use of ‘energy.’”
In the months since the lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court, the village has defended the legality of the ordinance arguing that municipalities have the right to regulate matters of public health so long as the local ordinances don’t compete with federal law.
“Local governments have great latitude to protect their residents’ health, safety, and welfare,” the village’s attorneys wrote in a September motion. “EPCA was enacted to reduce the energy that appliances consume through energy conservation standards. It expressly preempts local energy conservation standards that compete with federal ones. But nothing in its text, structure, or history suggests that it also preempts local laws that restrict the use of certain appliances, in certain locations, for reasons having nothing to do with energy conservation.”
Lawyers from several national, regional and local public health and environmental groups have joined the village’s legal defense. Attorneys from Earthjustice, the Chicago Environmental Justice Network, the Respiratory Health Association, the ACLU and Sierra Club have joined the electrification ordinance’s defense.
Several attorneys listed as representing the Oak Park Climate Action Network, a local volunteer organization, are also on the case.
“There is an established scientific basis and growing public understanding that methane gas-burning appliances inside our homes, schools, and workplaces are making us sick,” wrote attorneys representing Sierra Club, Oak Park Climate Action Network, Chicago Environmental Justice Network and the Respiratory Health Association in a joint filing in October. “This pollution causes serious harm, including lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as cardiovascular disease, cognitive deficits, cancer, and death.”
A date for oral arguments has not yet been set for the case.
The electrification policy is a cornerstone of Oak Park’s ambitious “Climate Ready Oak Park” sustainability plan, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the village by 60% by 2030 and have Oak Park fully carbon neutral by 2050.
Carbon emissions from residential and commercial buildings had been found to account for 70% of Oak Park’s total emissions, according to the village’s sustainability office.
The electrification ordinance passed the village board unanimously on June 20, 2023.
According to the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Oak Park was the first municipality in the Midwest to approve an electrification ordinance.
The plaintiffs in the suit include both labor-side and management-side groups from the construction industry together. It was filed by natural gas advocacy group the Clean Energy Choice Coalition, operating engineers’ union IUOE Local 150, the National Association of Home Builders and NPL Construction, a nationwide construction firm with locations on Chicago’s West Side and in Naperville.
Oak Park’s natural gas ban does leave an exemption for commercial kitchens.
