by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
The White House kitchen is outfitted with a commercial natural gas stove
Berkeley was the first city in the United States to ban gas stoves, in 2019. This followed the 2018 passage of Senate Bill 100 by then-Senator Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), which established the 100 Percent Clean Energy Act of 2017 increasing the 2011 Renewables Portfolio Standard requirement from 50 percent by 2030 to 60 percent, and created the policy of planning to meet all of the state’s retail electricity supply with a mix of RPS-eligible and zero-carbon resources by December 31, 2045, for a total of 100 percent clean energy.
SB 100 also established an ambitious target of 60 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and accelerates the current 50 percent target to 2026.
Berkeley banned the use of natural gas in new home and new building construction with a local ordinance requiring all new construction to run on electric power, which started in 2020, Courthouse News reported.
“The news hit the restaurant industry particularly hard, and it moved swiftly to counteract the regulation’s allegedly ruinous effect.”
The California Restaurant Association filed suit alleging “the city’s ordinance is preempted by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which regulates energy use by appliances. Since the law forbids states and cities from banning appliances based on the type of energy they use, the city’s ordinance restricting the use of natural gas in new buildings amounts to an end-run around the EPCA.”
