Oak Park banned natural gas in new buildings, but a legal fight is underway

From stoves and furnaces to water heaters, buildings across Chicago are filled with appliances that run on natural gas.

Experts say new technologies are making it easier to switch from appliances using fossil fuels — the biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions — to those using electricity. And municipalities are pushing developers to make the switch to electric as a way to combat climate change.

Oak Park is among a rising number of municipalities in the United States that have passed an electrification ordinance, banning the use of natural gas in new commercial and residential buildings. Like cities in California and New York that have implemented similar measures, the west suburb ins tangled in a legal fight a year after its ordinance took effect.

Trade and real estate groups joined to file a federal complaint in April against Oak Park over the natural gas ban. The Clean Energy Choice Coalition said the ordinance is “invalid and unenforceable” under federal energy laws, limits consumer choice and causes "business and financial harm."

The coalition's members include the National Association of Homebuilders, NPL Construction Co. and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.

“If this ban continues in Oak Park, consumers pay the price any way you look at it,” the group's spokesperson Lissa Druss said. “Jobs are lost. Choice is lost.”

Electricity only

Oak Park is the first municipality in the Midwest to pass an electrification ordinance, according to the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. It passed the measure in June 2023, and it took effect Jan. 1, 2024. The ordinance amended the village's building code to require new construction to be fully electric.

"The source of energy shall not be fossil fuels,” it says.

Fossil fuels, including natural gas, are allowed to be used only for emergency backup power and for commercial kitchens.

The natural gas ban is a cornerstone of the suburb's climate change goals. In 2022, Oak Park passed the Climate Ready Oak Park plan. It includes a commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Oak Park also wants to cut community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 60% no later than 2030.

The plan “presents an ambitious vision, concrete commitments and actions that can be undertaken by all community members and organizations,” Oak Park officials said in a written statement.

They wouldn't to comment on the lawsuit nor make officials available for an interview.

Oak Park has until Sept. 24 to submit a motion for summary judgment that, if granted, would throw out all or part of the case without having to through a full trial.

Clean Energy Choice's lawsuit comes five years after Berkeley, California, enacted the nation's first ban on natural gas hookups in new construction. But Berkeley began repealing the ordinance in 2024, after the California Restaurant Association sued the city in 2021.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in a unanimous 2022 decision that the Berkeley ban was preempted by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act, saying the federal law supersedes state and local provisions setting energy efficiency standards for appliances. The court said the Berkeley ban's limit on the use of certain appliances conflicts with the federal law's ability to set standards for natural gas usage.

New York City banned fossil fuels in 2023 for some new buildings and was sued, but a federal court upheld the city's ban because it doesn't directly regulate energy use. On July 23, a federal court upheld the state of New York's gas ban after the state was sued by fossil fuel and housing groups. This means New York will become the first state to push for all-electric new buildings when its rule takes effect Dec. 31 for smaller buildings and, with some exceptions, for all properties in 2029.

New construction is typically a target for electrification because it helps address where greenhouse-gas emissions are often the highest.

But doing so hurts homebuilders and engineers, Clean Energy Choice argues.

Marc Poulos, executive director of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, said the union is "generally opposed to any ban on natural gas." The union isn't opposed to other energy forms like wind, electricity or solar, he said, but it wants a better implementation plan.

The group suing Oak Parks says its ordinance is illegal under the federal law cited by the California Restaurant Association in the Berkeley case. Its suit said that law "reflects Congress’ decision that the nation’s energy policy cannot be dictated by state and local governments."

Beyond Oak Park

Ben Gould, founder and president of EcoDataLab, was behind Berkeley's gas ban in 2016. He chaired Berkeley's City Environment and Climate Commission when he proposed the policy.

"Cities are looking at ways they can improve building energy and environmental performance and realizing that natural gas is not the best technology available on the market," Gould said, citing heat pumps as an example, saying they "are often more energy-efficient, more environmentally friendly than natural gas for heating, and so they're looking at ways to help encourage or push developers to use the technology."

The group suing Oak Park says natural gas is the “most affordable and reliable energy source.”

But a 2022 analysis by Energy Futures Group, on behalf of the the lobby group the Natural Resources Defense Council, found that electrification in new construction could save Chicago homeowners upwards of $15,000 over 20 years and $10,000 for existing homeowners who switch from natural gas to electricity.

Last year, Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed ending natural gas connections in new Chicago homes and buildings, but his plan was shot down by the City Council. The ordinance also had strong opposition from groups like the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.

Instead of a gas ban, Evanston passed a measure earlier this year called the Healthy Buildings Ordinance to cut greenhouse-gas emissions in the suburb’s largest buildings.

About 80% of Evanston’s emissions come from buildings, according to the city. Its Climate Action and Resilience Plan aims for the city to reduce building energy consumption by 50% and reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Buildings larger than 20,000 square feet are subject to the ordinance. By 2050, they must meet standards that include being energy-efficient, eliminating on-site emissions and using only renewable electricity.

Evanston officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The Naperville Environment and Sustainability Task Force, a volunteer group that advises the west suburb's officials and residents on sustainability efforts, is pushing for decarbonization efforts. Buildings are the biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions in Naperville, followed by transportation, according to the group, known as NEST.

“Experience from other municipalities shows that there can be push back to these ordinances,” the group's Barbara Benson said. “However, their effectiveness at lowering greenhouse-gas emissions in the building sector is impactful. Electrification is the future of the building sector.”

Naperville city spokesperson Linda LaCloche said the suburb isn't considering adopting an electrification ordinance like Oak Park.

Cynthia Klein-Banai, a University of Illinois-Chicago environmental and occupational health sciences professor who is a volunteer with the Oak Park Climate Action Network, said municipalities can lower greenhouse-gas emissions without banning natural gas.

“For a while, it was a question of could we adequately heat our homes with another form of fuel, with electricity at a reasonable cost and efficiency," she said. “All of the technology exists, and technology continues to improve.”

Jon Welner, a partner in the law firm Crowell & Moring’s San Francisco office, said two common approaches that cities are taking rather than banning natural gas are establishing efficiency requirements and restrictions on nitrogen dioxide emissions. He said that, after Berkeley's ban was revoked, many California cities have been taking indirect approaches to curbing natural gas use. But he said Oak Park's ordinance is a direct challenge to the Berkeley ruling.

"They're actually trying to challenge the preemption decision by passing an absolute prohibition and then testing it in the courts again in a different circuit," Welner said. "That's another strategy for trying to push against the use of gas."

The move to all-electric could shift the needle for Oak Park — 42% of the suburb’s electricity usage is from natural gas, according to a 2023 report from ComEd. Only 6% of electricity was from renewable sources, like solar or wind power.

Klein-Banai said moving away from natural gas can have a massive impact on greenhouse-gas emissions, but businesses looking to build and invest in communities need to be prepared.

“Any way that we can act to accelerate [decarbonization] is really important,” she said. “While we need to take the time, we also really need to be cognizant that we need to take the action.”