A bill that would prevent states and localities from banning gas appliances and mechanical systems cleared a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday, teeing it up for a floor vote.
The Energy Choice Act is seen as a rebuke to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has championed a law in her state requiring new buildings to use only electric mechanical systems.
“Albany’s war on natural gas is an illogical, dangerous infringement on your rights,” U.S. Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement this week.
Although the conflict is centered in New York, the House bill would make it illegal for all states and localities to ban an energy service’s connection, reconnection, modification, installation or expansion based on the type or source of energy to be delivered.
The bill was cleared by the House committee on Energy & Commerce on Wednesday. If it passes Congress, the law could force states and local governments that already have gas bans in place to hit the pause button.
“This legislation will prevent these one-size-fits-all mandates from wreaking further havoc on small businesses and their local economies as electricity demands continue to break peak records,” Louis Bertolotti, principal of federal government relations at the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said in a statement.
California and Washington are among the states with bans, and Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Maryland, are among the localities with bans.
Hochul signed the All Electric Buildings Act into law in late 2023 as part of a broader budget bill. It was slated to take effect in early 2026 but she announced in November that her administration was pausing its implementation until after a federal appellate court rules on how the law intersects with federal law. Construction and other state and national trade groups sued to stop the law, arguing it violates the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act., or ECPA, which imposes nationwide energy security requirements.
ECPA “preempts state or local regulation concerning the energy use or energy efficiency of common household and commercial appliances,” the trade groups said in a letter earlier this year to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. The National Association of Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors, National Propane Gas Association and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are among the groups signing the letter.
