The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Monday struck down a Berkeley, California law that prohibited the installation of natural gas piping in newly constructed buildings.

The California Restaurant Association brought suit against the City of Berkeley alleging that the law, enacted in 2020 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, was preempted by Congress’s Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). The city argued that the EPCA only preempts regulations imposing standards on the design and manufacturing of appliances, not those that impact the distribution and availability of natural gas–which the City’s ordinance does. Because of this, the city argued, its ordinance is not preempted by the EPCA.

The court ruled in the restaurant association’s favor, stating that the act “expressly preempts State and local regulations concerning the energy use of many natural gas appliances,” including those needing the natural gas hookups prohibited by the Berkeley ordinance. The court also said that the “circuitous route” the City of Berkeley took in its law created the same result as Congress’s law, which was to regulate natural gas use. Rather than prohibiting the use of natural gas appliances in new buildings, the law prohibited the installation of natural gas hookups so that appliances needing natural gas would be rendered useless.

The court ultimately struck down the ordinance because it “cuts to the heart of what Congress sought to prevent – state and local manipulation of building codes for new construction to regulate the natural gas consumption of covered products.”