A Morris Township ordinance requiring new apartment complexes to be all-electric faces a legal challenge from a mighty opponent: the Trump administration.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Morris Township and several of its officials on Tuesday, alleging a 2022 ordinance requiring new apartment complexes with 12 or more units to be built without natural gas or propane violates federal law. In federal court, the DOJ argued the ordinance limits access to affordable energy and potentially risks national security.
“Standing in the way of that progress, certain states and localities have enacted ‘energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.’ These radical measures ‘weaken our national security and devastate Americans by driving up energy costs for families coast-to-coast.’ Instead, ‘Americans must be permitted to heat their homes, fuel their cars, and have peace of mind—free from policies that make energy more expensive and inevitably degrade quality of life.’”
The lawsuit names Morris Township Mayor Donna Guariglia, Consulting Township Engineer Joseph Vuich, and Construction Code Official Ron Auth as defendants. Guariglia and Township Administrator Timothy Quinn did not immediately return a request for comment.
Some lawmakers, particularly Democrats, have moved to limit the use of natural gas and propane, greenhouse gases that are contributing to climate change.
The DOJ argues that the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 preempts state and local laws on the subject. EPCA gives Congress the authority to set energy efficiency and use standards for appliances, they argue, and Morris Township’s ordinance violates Congress’s authority. Morris Township does not qualify to be exempt from the law, either, the DOJ states.
A federal appeals court in 2023 deemed a similar law in California to be illegal. Berkeley had banned natural gas hookups on new construction projects, but the California Restaurant Association challenged the law, and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck it down.
The Trump administration argues the California case sets the precedent for striking down Morris Township’s law.
“As the Ninth Circuit recently held, ‘completely prohibiting the installation of natural gas piping within newly constructed buildings’ is ‘preempted by Congress’ in EPCA,” the suit reads. “As that precedent demonstrates, Morris Township’s gas ban is invalid.”
The DOJ is asking District Judge Julien Xavier Neals to strike down the ordinance.
Seamus Hughes, a senior research faculty member at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, reported the suit.