Restaurant Law Center v. City & County of Denver

On August 7, 2026, the federal district court for the District of Colorado dismissed with prejudice a challenge to standards passed by the Denver City Council in 2023 that restrict or ban use of certain natural gas appliances. As a threshold matter, the court found that the business groups that challenged the standards had standing. On the merits, however, the court rejected the groups’ argument that the standards were a regulation “concerning” a covered product’s “energy use” as defined by EPCA and were therefore preempted. The court agreed with the Second Circuit in Association of Contracting Plumbers of the City of New York v. City of New York that “energy use” in EPCA refers to “a standardized, fixed measure assigned to a product before it reaches consumers.” The district court found that Denver’s standards—“which only regulate appliances purchased by consumers and which do not impose requirements on manufacturers—do not regulate energy use as contemplated by the EPCA’s preemption provision.” The court further concluded that the EPCA preemption provision’s use of the word “concerning” did not extend the provision’s reach to the Denver standards.

In a lawsuit alleging that the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) preempts City and County of Denver laws and regulations restricting or banning use of certain natural gas appliances, the federal district court for the District of Colorado allowed challenges to 2023 amendments to the Energy Code to proceed but found that challenges to Municipal Code provisions directing that additional standards take effect in 2025 and 2027 were not ripe. The court noted that Denver had not yet added the 2025 and 2027 standards to its Energy Code, so the standards were not final and enforceable; the court also found that declining to decide the challenges to the 2025 and 2027 standards would not cause the plaintiffs significant hardship. The court rejected defendant-intervenor Sierra Club’s contention that EPCA’s 60-day limit for judicial review should apply to the challenge to the 2023 Energy Code amendments.