Restaurant Law Center v. City & County of Denver

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.

A lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the District of Colorado challenged provisions of two Denver ordinances that restrict use of gas appliances. The first ordinance—which its backers said would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings by 80% by 2040—required that the Denver Building and Fire Code be amended to implement certain electrification requirements, and the second ordinance adopted the 2022 Denver Building Code, including the 2022 Denver Energy Code that implemented an initial phase of the first ordinance’s requirements. The plaintiffs asserted that provisions of these laws are preempted by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The plaintiffs sought a permanent injunction on enforcement of the laws and a declaratory judgment declaring that they were preempted by federal law and therefore void and unenforceable.