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.

Lawsuit challenging Denver electrification requirements for buildings.

Restaurant Law Center v. City & County of Denver

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Colorado Federal Court Allowed Portion of Challenge to Denver Natural Gas Appliance Restrictions to Proceed but Said Other Challenges Were Premature

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

A loan is a policy instrument where funds are provided to a borrower with the expectation of repaying the principal plus interest.

Codes and standards are regulatory instruments that specify minimum standards to protect health and safety. This ranges from performance standards, which prescribe outcomes while allowing flexibility to achieve compliance, to the more prescriptive approach of technology-specific standards.

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

Replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly with alternatives powered by electricity.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

People whose health, both mental and physical, makes them more vulnerable to the effects of climate change

The activities of industries that transforms raw materials into finished goods through industrial processes.

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

Colorado Federal Court Allowed Portion of Challenge to Denver Natural Gas Appliance Restrictions to Proceed but Said Other Challenges Were Premature

Policy instrument

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Economic sector