The Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower court’s ruling, allowing gas trade associations to continue their legal challenges against Biden-era restrictions on natural gas-powered consumer furnaces. [some emphasis, links added]
The efficiency rules finalized during the Biden administration would make non-condensing furnaces, which account for approximately 55% of natural gas furnaces on the market, illegal in 2028, according to the American Gas Association, a trade organization.
The rules, they said, would drive up home heating costs.
“Their removal from the market would saddle families with costly renovations or eliminate gas as a home heating option [altogether],” the industry groups involved in the legal challenge said in a statement.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the rules, and the high court’s ruling on Monday sends it back for further consideration, Bloomberg Law reported.
A coalition of 21 GOP state attorneys general and 10 organizations had urged the Supreme Court to review the appeals court’s ruling.
“This decision from the D.C. Circuit will hurt working families in West Virginia, seniors on fixed income and those in our rural communities more than any other, as they will be forced to either pay for costly home renovations or give up natural gas altogether,” West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey, who led the state coalition, said in a statement.
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