After over a year of legal battles, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Village of Oak Park upholding its ordinance requiring new buildings to be all-electric.
On July 30, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted judgement that building code amendments are not preempted by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
“This ruling is about doing what is right and what our planet urgently needs,” said Village President Vicki Scaman in a press release. “In order to effectively combat climate change negatively effecting every community across our nation and globe, we must move away from reliance on petroleum.”
Scaman was appointed to the Local Governments for Sustainability USA board of directors earlier this year and continues to lead the village in an environmentally progressive direction.
Clean Energy Choice Coalition, a natural gas advocacy group, filed the lawsuit and argued it conflicts with policies in the federal guidelines which restrict local and state management of federally regulated energy sources.
“We disagree with the court’s decision and are disappointed with the outcome. We continue to believe strongly in the merits of our position, especially based on the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, and are reviewing the decision carefully with our counsel as we consider all of our options moving forward.” said coalition spokesperson Lissa Druss.
In 2023, a conflicting ruling was made for the City of Berkeley in California deciding that a building code banning new natural gas hookups was preempted by the federal guidelines.
Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, served as one of Oak Park’s attorneys on a pro bono basis for this case.
“This decision joins a growing consensus of courts around the country that have recognized that local authorities like the Village of Oak Park have the authority to pass common sense legislation that reduces air pollution in our homes and schools, and helps address the climate crisis,” said Gavin Kearney, an attorney for Earthjustice, in a press release.
The Oak Park ordinance, which was adopted in 2023 and went into effect in 2024, specified that all new buildings and residences constructed must only rely on electricity instead of fossil fuels for energy. Oak Park was the first municipality in all of the Midwest to approve an electrification ordinance, according to the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.
It serves as one piece to the overall village Climate Ready Oak Park initiative adopted in 2022 with the goal of decreasing community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The village, led by Chief Sustainability Officer Lindsey Roland-Nieratka, will be hosting an event in September to share the progress toward these goals at the Oak Park Public Library.
Roland-Nieratka said the electrification ordinance is important to reaching those sustainability ambitions as buildings will be “set up for success” and not “locked into an old technology.”
“It is much more affordable to think about electrification and to design the building from the beginning to be able to support fully electric systems, to be able to support maybe future renewable energy,” said Roland-Nieratka. “What becomes expensive or what can be costly, especially with a new building being built today, is to not plan for that and then retrofit to that in the future.”
There are many resources for buildings that rely on fossil fuels but want to make the switch to electricity such as the Oak Park Energy Navigator, energy efficiency grants and climate coaches through a partnership with Oak Park Climate Action Network.