CA Republicans Call on Trump Admin to Help Beat Back State’s Natural Gas   Restrictions        

By McKenzie Jackson | California Black Media

California Republican leaders are pushing back against state and local initiatives across the Golden State aimed at preventing Californians from buying or installing gas appliances in their homes.

On Feb. 10, they asked the administration of President Donald Trump to intervene. 

In a letter, the 28 Republican members of the State Assembly and State Senate urged U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Christopher Wright to evaluate the policies and stop gas appliance restrictions wherever possible. 

“As executive orders issued by the new Trump/Vance administration recognize, America’s prosperity and national security depend on an affordable, reliable, and sufficient energy supply,” the letter reads. “Recent efforts to restrict natural gas use limit consumer choice and deny vulnerable communities access to an affordable and reliable energy source. Such efforts have created a difficult-to-navigate patchwork of local rules and impose costs on consumers, manufacturers, workers, and businesses, contributing to California’s affordability crisis.”

In a statement Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) said energy policies initiated by Democrats are hurting family budgets and escalating the state’s cost-of-living crisis.

“Working Californians already face some of the highest electric rates in the country – they can’t afford to have out-of-touch bureaucrats ban more affordable energy sources,” Gallagher said. “If California’s leaders won’t stand up for consumers, the federal government should.”

There has been an ongoing effort to decrease the use of natural gas appliances in California in recent years to improve indoor air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The California Air Resources Board approved a plan three years ago requiring homes and businesses to transition to zero-emission alternatives like electric heat pumps instead of gas-powered water and space heaters by 2023. 

According to the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a group focused on eliminating fossil fuels in buildings to improve health and make communities more resilient to the climate change, 74 California jurisdictions have policies that seek to end the use of natural gas in new buildings. 

However, many of these efforts are facing resistance and legal challenges from homebuilders, restaurants, and the gas industry. 

The National Association of Home Builders and other housing groups and businesses filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in December against the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s ban on certain gas appliances.           

The lawsuit came seven months after the city of Berkeley agreed to roll back a landmark climate rule that would have prohibited natural gas hookups in new homes. The 2019 gas ban was challenged by the California Restaurant Association and struck down in 2023 by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

In the letter, Republicans said the gas bans and all-electric mandates have a negative impact because the state’s electricity rates are 92% higher than the national average and natural gas prices are 30% higher.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-Santee) called the energy policies “government overreach” and said Californians don’t need to be dictated to regarding what appliances they can purchase.

“Electricity rates in California are the highest in the nation, and we barely have enough supply to keep the lights on,” he said. “Now, Democrats want to push consumers away from the only more affordable alternative.”

Jones, who represents most of inland San Diego County, told California Black Media (CBM) in an email that the cities of San Diego and Encinitas have passed natural gas bans. He hopes the U.S. Department of Energy will “step in where appropriate and overturn these overreaching policies.” 

“The new administration has committed to recognizing that America’s prosperity and national security depend on an affordable, reliable, and sufficient energy supply,” he said. “That starts with ensuring all energy options remain available to consumers.”

Last month, in Grand Terrace, a city in San Bernardino County, over 100 residents in a senior living facility were left in the dark for nine days when Southern California Edison implemented a Public Safety Power Shutoff. 

Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa), whose district includes Grand Terrace, said the power outage made it clear that Californians need energy options. 

“Families relying solely on electric heating face severe hardships. Until the state strengthens its power grid, eliminating natural gas appliances is both irresponsible and out of touch with the needs of everyday people,” she said. 

Republican legislators wrote in the five-page letter that gas bans hurt economic development and that a variety of domestic energy is needed to avoid dependence on foreign energy sources and to protect against vulnerabilities. 

The efforts to reduce or eliminate natural gas use have taken several forms and raise legal and political concerns, the GOP lawmakers added.  

After listing some of the anti-natural gas efforts, Republicans asked the Department of Energy to legally challenge any California authority that violates the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, which establishes nationally uniform energy conservation standards for many commercial and residential appliances. They said the department should query the lawfulness of the initiatives in the wake of the California Restaurant Association’s win in Berkeley’s recent Supreme Court rulings — such as the overruling of the Chevron deference — and the Trump administration’s executive orders.

At press time, Jim Stanley, a spokesperson for Gallagher, said the California Republicans had not yet received a response from the Department of Energy. 

“We’ve seen in recent years that California has enough trouble as it is keeping the lights on in the summer,” he said. “Forcing people to go all electric would be a challenge and strain the grid. Its economics and it is choice. If someone decides electric is the way to go for them, they are certainly welcome to. But we don’t want to mandate that.”