Oak Park natural gas ban faces legal challenge

In 2024, Oak Park, Illinois, went where Mayor Brandon Johnson tried to take Chicago – banning all natural gas connections in new building projects. The high cost of this inconsequential, feel-good move is getting legal pushback.

Oak Park’s village board prohibited natural gas connections in new construction projects starting in early 2024, but the pricey move has the village being sued in federal court.

A coalition of natural gas and construction groups is suing the village in federal court on the grounds the ban usurps federal authority. It is also hostile to consumers by taking away choice, increasing demand on a stretched electrical grid, and adding significant costs to build and operate a home.

“This ordinance deprives residents and businesses of the freedom to choose natural gas, the most affordable and reliable energy source,” Clean Energy Choice Coalition spokesperson Lissa Druss told the Journal of Oak Park and River Forest. “Eliminating this choice in new construction risks significantly increasing taxpayer energy costs, undermining energy equity and permanently blocking the use of future innovative energy solutions that could leverage existing natural gas infrastructure.”

Advocates of natural gas bans justify them as a way to achieve carbon neutrality, but they seldom consider the impact on the many who rely on natural gas to meet their heating and cooking needs. Nor do they balance these impacts against the overall environmental gains banning natural gas is supposed to deliver.

Banning natural gas puts a greater burden on the electrical energy grid. Artificially restricting one energy source causes energy prices to rise as remaining sources are forced to take up the slack.

Nearly 8-in-10 Illinois households use natural gas for heating, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A statewide ban on natural gas would drive Illinois families’ average annual energy costs up by $2,631, according to a report by the Consumer Energy Alliance. Oak Park’s ban will drive the cost of housing in the village higher.

The “climate emergency” Oak Park is attempting to address is global. According to 2019 figures, Oak Park’s total natural gas use accounted for less than one one-billionth of global energy use. Oak Park’s prohibition of natural gas is a policy destined to make progressive leaders feel good but have virtually no environmental impact while delivering significantly higher building and energy costs to Oak Park’s residents.

Village leaders’ prerogative to ban a widely used energy source stems from its devotion to hitting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets included in the “Climate Ready Oak Park” sustainability plan. Should the plan achieve all its backers promise, Oak Park would be carbon neutral by 2050. Village leaders said they suspect the plan will fall short of its goals.

Good intentions don’t always result in sound policy. Village leaders should let sound economics and free markets meet the energy needs of their residents, not restrict their choices in a way that significantly drives up residents’ housing and energy costs.