Federal Appeals Court Cracks Down on Berkeley Natural Gas Ban in Blow to Biden Administration
Berkeley’s vaunted first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas pipes in new construction is no more — for now, at least.
In April, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law, which had gone into effect in 2020 but had been challenged by the California Restaurant Association, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
On Tuesday, the full court refused to re-hear the case, leaving the previous ruling in place.
The Biden administration, despite repeated claims that it was not seeking to ban natural gas stoves, had supported Berkeley’s ban.
In a court filing, President Joe Biden’s Justice Department asked the larger court to review the earlier decision, arguing that the previous ruling “cast a cloud of uncertainty over any health or safety law that may indirectly affect someone’s ability to use a product for which the federal government has issued an energy conservation standard.”
“I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so,” Consumer Product Safety Commission Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric said in a statement last January, according to The Associated Press.
Only two days prior to that statement, however, SPSC Richard Trumka Jr., who had been nominated for that position by Biden, said in an interview that “Any option is on the table,” with regard to banning gas stoves, which he claimed emitted toxic chemicals.
“Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” he added.
According to the AP, however, Trumka jumped on social media later to “clarify” those remarks.
“To be clear, CPSC isn’t coming for anyone’s gas stoves,” he wrote. “Regulations apply to new products.”
At the same time, however, he signaled the administration’s obvious preference for electric stoves by mentioning an $840 rebate that was signed into law in Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
“The president does not support banning gas stoves,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing that same week, apparently in an attempt to distance the Biden administration further from Trumka’s comments. “And the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is independent, is not banning gas stoves.”
And yet, the president’s administration filed a brief with the court in favor of Berkeley’s ban on gas lines in new construction.
No explanation for the seeming contradiction in positions was readily apparent.
Regardless, Berkeley’s attempt to “fight climate change and protect the health of its residents,” in the words of City council member Kate Harrison, who wrote the law that was struck down, has failed, unless the city chooses to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and SCOTUS agrees to hear the appeal, KTVU noted.
Meanwhile, local restaurant owners were breathing a sigh of relief, according to the outlet.
“Surprised but really relieved,” Emily Sarlatte, co-owner of La Marcha, a Spanish restaurant, told KTVU.
“I feel like this would put a lot of restaurants out of business to comply by this,” Sarlatte added, saying that if the ban had been enforced, La Marcha would likely have had to close its doors.
“Buying that much equipment wasn’t cheap and can’t imagine it would be cheap now,” she said.
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