National Association of Home Builders of the United States v. District of Columbia

The federal district court for the District of Columbia rejected a preemption challenge to the Clean Energy D.C. Building Code Amendment Act of 2022, which bans use of gas appliances in certain newly constructed or improved buildings. The court concluded that the text, statutory scheme, and history of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act supported a reading of its preemption clause as preempting “only laws that impose additional performance standards for appliances on top of federally established ones.”