Judge rules for Montgomery County in suit challenging ‘gas ban’

A U.S. district judge ruled in favor of Montgomery County in one lawsuit challenging its decarbonization efforts, tossing the plaintiffs’ argument that a federal energy law preempts the county’s so-called “gas ban.”

The ruling could threaten another pending suit against Maryland’s most populous county, in which a condominium association and various trade groups are challenging local building energy performance standards.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis granted summary judgment to the county in a lawsuit filed by many of the same trade groups. In an opinion, she found that the county’s Bill 13-22, which requires the county executive to issue all-electric building standards that prohibit the use of gas appliances in new construction, is not superseded by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

The federal law aimed to boost energy production and curb demand in response to the energy crisis in the early 1970s. It was amended later to create uniform standards for home appliances and preempt state laws regulating the energy efficiency, energy use or water use of such appliances.

The local law requiring all-electric building standards was passed in 2022 to move Montgomery County closer to its climate goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

The group of corporations and building and appliance trade associations, headed by the National Association of Home Builders, sued in 2024 seeking to block the county from enforcing the ban on gas appliances.

They argued that the EPCA expressly preempts the county’s all-electric mandate, largely pointing to a 2023 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that nullified a Berkely, California, ordinance banning the installation of natural gas piping within newly constructed buildings.

In her Wednesday opinion, Xinis wrote that the county law “simply does not regulate ‘energy use’ as the term is understood in the EPCA,” finding the all-electric mandate doesn’t regulate energy consumption at the “point of use.”

Although the federal law sets energy efficiency, consumer labeling and testing procedure standards for specific appliances, the county’s gas ban bill “touches on none of those,” she found.

“The Bill instead prohibits a category of appliances regardless of whether they meet the efficiency or labeling standards under the EPCA,” wrote.

It was unclear whether the plaintiffs would appeal. The legal team representing the trade associations did not immediately return requests for comment Friday. Nor did spokespeople for the National Association of Home Builders and the Maryland Building Industry Association, two of the plaintiffs.

Many of the same plaintiffs, as well as the Elizabeth Condominium Association of Chevy Chase, are involved in another federal lawsuit alleging that a separate Montgomery County environmental bill creating a system of energy performance standards for large standards is also preempted by the EPCA. County attorney John P. Markovs filed a notice of supplemental authority on Friday alerting U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman, who is overseeing that case, to Xinis’ opinion.

The same institutions are also involved in a third lawsuit challenging Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act, which state lawmakers approved in 2022 and includes its own building performance standards system aimed at phasing out natural gas. Boardman is also overseeing that case but has not yet ruled on a pending motion to dismiss.