Staff and faculty of the UCLA Emmett Institute filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in a hotly watched case about decarbonization policies on behalf of leading energy and environmental law professors. The case, National Association of Home Builders v. District of Columbia, is one of several pending before federal courts involving industry groups’ challenges to local building decarbonization policies. D.C.’s Clean Buildings Act provides that builders cannot use fossil fuels for on-site combustion in certain newly constructed or substantially improved buildings. This brief explains local governments’ longstanding primary authority over local gas distribution and use.

The brief was filed through UCLA’s Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic on behalf of 11 leading energy and environmental law professors: UCLA’s William Boyd, Lincoln Davies at the University of Utah, Dan Farber and Sharon Jacobs at UC Berkeley, Alexandra Klass at the University of Michigan, Joshua Macey at Yale, Heather Payne at The Ohio State University, Melissa Powers at Lewis & Clark, Jim Rossi at Vanderbilt, David Spence at the University of Texas, and Shelley Welton at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Read the brief