Sierra Club is defending state and local building electrification efforts against industry attack in courts across the country. Since the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down Berkeley’s city ordinance banning gas infrastructure in new buildings, gas industry groups have filed eleven copy-cat suits, attacking building electrification efforts in six states and the District of Columbia. Sierra Club attorneys have intervened or submitted amicus briefs in all eleven of these cases. This fall, we secured preliminary victories in two cases and filed merits briefs in district and appellate courts.
On September 16, the District of Colorado partially granted our motion to dismiss Restaurant Law Center v. Denver, a case where the plaintiffs challenged building code standards addressing gas appliances in commercial and multifamily buildings. This preliminary win removes the industry plaintiffs’ claims against two of the three challenged ordinances, and it sets us up to successfully argue against the plaintiffs’ misleading characterization of the remaining challenged ordinance as a “gas ban.” We will work with our co-counsel at Earthjustice to file a motion to dismiss the remaining claims on December 8.
On October 1, Sierra Club attorneys filed an amicus brief in Clean Energy Choice Coalition v. Village of Oak Park, Illinois on behalf of Sierra Club, the Oak Park Climate Action Network (OPCAN), the Chicago Environmental Justice Network, and the Respiratory Health Association. Our brief details the public health and climate harms of burning gas in buildings, and argues that health protections like Oak Park’s ordinance fall within core local authority. True to Sierra Club’s grassroots values, our coalition’s brief ensures the voices of dedicated local activists are heard in this lawsuit—especially OPCAN, who was instrumental in passing the Village's ordinance. Briefing will be complete in late November, and we expect the district court to issue a decision on the merits in 2026.
On October 3, Sierra Club attorneys filed a motion to dismiss Colorado Apartment Association v. Ryan, a lawsuit brought by corporate landlords seeking to overturn Colorado’s and Denver’s building performance standards. Our motion urges the court to reject the Berkeley court’s interpretation of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, and argues that the challenged standards would not be preempted even under that interpretation. The state and city defendants also filed motions to dismiss. We expect briefing on the motions to be complete by late November, and the court will likely issue a decision in 2026.
On October 22, we filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that the court should uphold our resounding district court victory in Rinnai v. South Coast Air Quality Management District. The case challenges the District’s zero-emission boiler rule, threatening to apply the Berkeley ruling to curb states’ bedrock authority to regulate air pollution, with potentially dire consequences for building electrification policies. In a sign of desperation, the plaintiffs have asked the Ninth Circuit to pause implementation of the rule while their appeal is pending, after we successfully persuaded the district court to deny such a pause on September 29. Sierra Club, our co-intervenors Industrious Labs and the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, and our co-counsel at Earthjustice are confident that our arguments will persuade the Ninth Circuit. The case is not yet scheduled for oral argument.
On November 6, we filed an amicus curiae brief in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that the court should uphold the district court victory in Association of Contracting Plumbers v. City of New York. The district court rejected industry groups’ claims that New York City did not have the authority to implement its Local Law 154 which set greenhouse gas emissions limits for new buildings. We intend to file a similar brief in support of New York State’s All Electric Buildings Act in another Second Circuit appeal by industry in December.
On October 14, Sierra Club also secured a preliminary victory in a Colorado Public Utilities Commission proceeding, where a utility represented by the same law firm as the Berkeley plaintiffs challenged the statutory phaseout of gas line extension allowances. Colorado Natural Gas argued that the phaseout violates the Takings and Contracts Clauses of the state and federal constitutions. In a Recommended Decision, an administrative law judge agreed with Sierra Club that the Colorado law phasing out gas line extension allowances is constitutional, rejecting CNG’s arguments. We filed a forceful defense of the Recommended Decision after CNG appealed it, and we expect a final decision by the full Commission in the coming weeks.
Sierra Club is represented in these cases by Sari Amiel, Matt Gerhart, Jim Dennison, Josh Berman, and Bridget Lee with Earthjustice co-counsel in some cases.