County halts enforcement of all-electric building code after U.S. District Court ruling

Sonoma County has suspended enforcement of a building code that prohibits natural gas or propane appliances in most new residential construction after a federal court ruled that local ordinances preventing the use of gas appliances are overridden by federal law.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley found earlier this year that the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act preempts state and local regulations that effectively ban natural gas appliances. The ruling means that the County’s all-electric reach code, adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 2022 to help the County meet its climate goals, is preempted by the federal law.

“Permit Sonoma has stopped enforcing the all-electric building code as a result of the court ruling,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt, chair of the Board of Supervisors. “We still encourage new residential construction to look for suitable alternatives to fossil fuel-burning appliances, and we will undoubtedly revisit this issue during our next building code update.”

Local jurisdictions have begun working around the federal preemption of all-electric building codes by adopting “electric-preferred” efficiency standards, which are permitted. Requiring homes to be as energy efficient as they would be if they used heat pump technology creates an incentive for developers to build all-electric structures since using natural gas would require developers to compensate with other energy efficiency improvements.

Permit Sonoma is moving forward with this efficiency approach for the next building code update that will come before the Board of Supervisors next year. The State and Sonoma County’s building codes are updated every three years with the next update expected in 2025 effective Jan. 1, 2026.

Read the The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision here.

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Media Contact:
Matt Brown, Communications Specialist
publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org
(707) 565-3040
575 Administration Drive, Suite 104A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403