Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said Tuesday a challenge of the All-Electric Buildings Act in New York State by a group of gas and construction trade associations and unions does not interfere with the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA).
While Phil Nanula, president of the Buffalo Niagara Builders Association, says the decision is a disappointing one to hear, it doesn't come as a complete surprise.
"We always felt we were going to have to go to the Supreme Court. We just didn't know if it was the state appealing it or us appealing it," said Nanula in an interview with WBEN.
What did catch Nanula's attention with this ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals is the fact it was ruled on so quickly.
"My impression is these things never happened that quickly in the courts," Nanula said. "It could have been over a year-plus at the Appellate [level], and then if it went to the Supreme Court, also that type of timeframe. I just find it interesting this is an election year, and this decision was brought forth so quickly. You can read between the lines, if you'd like, but I believe it's politically motivated."
Another note Nanula points to is the ruling was a split decision among the justices in the court.
There is a procedure that Nanula says will be taken by the New York State Builders Association with the Appellate Division to file an appeal before it heads to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"This is a narrow view, again, and they're using the California case as the benchmark," Nanula noted. "The California case refers to a gas ban as it relates to an appliance, and they're saying that New York State isn't restricting the appliance, but in effect they are because the appliance, a gas appliance could not be hooked up to a house that didn't have gas. So this continues to be a thorn in our ability to get this rectified on the state level."
The All-Electric Buildings Act in New York was originally set to take effect Jan. 1, 2026 and would ban natural gas hookups in new builds under seven stories tall, requiring those buildings to use electric heat and appliances. Due to the lawsuit, the state had agreed to push back the bill in November until a decision from the courts was handed down.
While this decision from the Appellate court does now allow New York to enact building electrification laws, Nanula does not anticipate the state to move any quicker than the new effective date for the bill in 2029.
"The way the agreement is written, when the pause occurred, the pause is at the Appellate level, and then if it goes to the Supreme Court level, it carries forward to the Supreme Court level. So I'm not worried about that happening tomorrow or because of this decision, because we will appeal it. So that agreement that happened in mid-November of 2025 will carry forward through that process," Nanula said.
Nanula also notes the State Builders Association is awaiting word on a bill in Washington, D.C. that could make this all moot, if passed through each branch of government.
"We are communicating with Congressman [Nick] Langworthy on an ongoing basis to see where the status of his Energy [Choice] Act bill lies," Nanula said. "It's my understanding it has not been brought to the floor yet. There's been too much distraction with the Iran conflict and other things, but it's my understanding that it's still working its way through getting on the floor. So the Energy Choice Act is still alive and is still being planned to be brought forth for a vote, and if that passes, I think that gives us a stronger foothold on why we think New York State shouldn't be mandating this."
In the meantime, Nanula says there's still a laundry list of items that need to be completed if the state wishes to continue its all-electrification push. The biggest issue before the state remains its capacity on the electrical grid.
"I actually have been working directly with National Grid to evaluate our existing neighborhoods to find out if they had capacity if these neighborhoods were not grandfathered," he said. "The current law does not provide any grandfathering, but there is a bill being formed by Assemblywoman [Carrie] Woerner out of Albany that would create a grandfathering of all existing neighborhoods that were built with both gas and electric. Keep in mind, we're putting neighborhoods in as we speak. I have two neighborhoods going in next month, and if we didn't have the ability to have grandfathering, how would I know whether to put gas in there or not? So that bill is being developed, it was being monitored and possibly delayed a little bit because of the court proceeding, but it's my understanding that there's a draft that is ready to be circulated, and it would help on the current neighborhoods.
"We're going to be talking about 400 amp services for these homes, and we pretty much are educated on the equipment that's available out there. But we also know some neighborhoods that were put in with electric; there's one in Rochester that the homeowner, when he got his first electric bill - a very small saltbox colonial home, small for a new build home - his first bill was $1,400. He created an avalanche of problems for that site and for that builder, and the builder did nothing wrong. The builder built per the requirements of an all-electric home, and the consumer was very upset with it."
Even today, Nanula says people wanting to build homes believe they have to build an all-electric home, resulting in them backing out of a potential build.
"Personally, Essex Homes lost five deals prior to the gas ban being paused last fall, because we got to a point where we couldn't take on any new deals, and the people that we were telling had to go all-electric refused to go forward. It's not what the consumer wants, and the consumers today, when you build a new home, we're talking about homes that are from $600,000 to $1 million. That's the norm these days. We're not talking about building a few-hundred thousand dollar home," Nanula said.
"We are still building with natural gas. That's been a point of confusion, it's one that we hear almost every week. And if this goes through to the Supreme Court, we're, at least, another year where that is going to be in a pause mode, and we are able to build with gas."
