Berkeley settles lawsuit to repeal gas ban, in final blow to dozens of California measures

The City of Berkeley has settled a lawsuit by the California Restaurant Association to repeal that city’s first-in-the-nation ban on gas hookups in new construction, dealing a final blow to more than a hundred similar measures in California cities including Sacramento.

Berkeley’s 2019 gas ban became a cornerstone in a national battle over the future of fossil gas in buildings as dozens of other municipal and county governments followed suit — including Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles.

The Friday announcement comes after a federal appeals court declined to rehear the case on Berkeley’s ordinance that a panel of judges struck down last year for preempting federal energy law.

In a press release, the Sacramento-based California Restaurant Association said Berkeley will take steps to formally repeal the ordinance as part of the settlement. Until the city repeals the measure in its legislative process, it will not enforce the measure.

“We are encouraged that the City of Berkeley has agreed to take steps to repeal the ordinance,” said Jot Condie, the association’s president and CEO in a statement. “Every city and county in California that has passed a similar ordinance should follow their lead.”

The City of Berkeley did not respond to requests for comment before publication.

In a statement, City of Sacramento spokesperson Kelli Trapani said “The City has not been enforcing the electrification ordinance since August 2023 and will look into next steps that best fit the City’s needs and sustainability goals.”

When Berkeley passed its first-in-the-nation ban on gas hookups for most new buildings in July 2019, dozens of cities followed. At least 76 California cities passed similar ordinances by the start of 2023.

Pollution from heating, cooling and cooking in buildings make up California’s third-largest source of carbon emissions. Despite successful efforts to slash emissions in other sectors, pollution in residential buildings have largely stagnated and emissions in commercial buildings have actually increased.

Research also suggests that cooking with gas stoves emits detectable levels of cancer-causing benzene, sometimes exceeding concentrations found in secondhand tobacco smoke in poorly ventilated homes.

Following Berkeley’s pioneering ban on gas hookups in most new buildings, the CRA sued, arguing the ordinance overstepped federal energy law. Judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed last April, striking down the ban.

The April ruling had a widespread chilling effect, and no new cities issued gas bans thereafter. Several communities, including San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz, suspended their rules in fear of legal action. Other cities such as Sacramento simply didn’t enforce theirs.

A Sacramento Bee investigation uncovered a growing connection between CRA and SoCalGas, the nation’s largest gas utility. Between 2019 and 2022, the utility’s donations to the trade group and its philanthropic arm grew tenfold.

Financial records also showed that SoCalGas funded legal research on the Berkeley case conducted by Reichman Jorgensen, the law firm used by the CRA in the suit. SoCalGas has consistently denied that it funded the lawsuit against Berkeley’s gas ban.

In Sacramento, individuals connected with the CRA emerged as key defenders of gas stoves as the city passed an ordinance for all-electric new buildings in 2020. Like many other cities, Sacramento’s rule included carve outs for restaurants and commercial kitchens.

Much of that debate centered around historic use of gas flames for cooking. Many professional chefs and restaurant owners have an economic and even emotional attachment to gas, which both CRA and SoCalGas made central to their political lobbying.

The utility sought to recruit both Asian and Latino-owned restaurateurs and community leaders as spokespeople to advocate against electrification through a front group called Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions, the Sacramento Bee also found.

With outright municipal gas hookup bans stifled, some cities are pushing for an alternative approach to cut out gas from buildings: “fuel-neutral” energy performance ordinances.

Instead of forbidding gas in new or existing construction, local governments in California are electing to set energy efficiency standards for buildings. Because gas is less efficient, the policies ultimately favor renewable or cleaner produced electricity.

San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz and Piedmont are some of the cities that have adopted an energy performance requirement, according to a group backed by major electricity providers, including Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison.

Matt Vespa, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, said California is still on track to cleaner, healthier homes. The state, he noted, recently committed to ensuring that heat pumps make up 65% of residential heating and cooling sales by 2030.

“The City of Berkeley deserves a lot of credit for acting quickly in 2019 to protect its residents from health-harming air pollution from gas appliances,” Vespa said. “While it’s disappointing to see today’s news, it should always be remembered that SoCalGas helped bankroll the law firm representing the California Restaurant Association in this fight.”

In August, CRA representatives told The Bee that more than half of the SoCalGas contributions to its organization went to its foundation for business grants and scholarships.

A spokesperson for the utility, Alice Walton, also denied that it funded the Berkeley lawsuit at the time, saying “It is bogus to claim that SoCalGas is funding other parties’ litigation just because we use the same law firms.”