Environmental & Community Groups Defend Landmark Rule to Advance Zero-Emissions Water Heaters & Boilers

Earthjustice, on behalf of the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, Sierra Club, and Industrious Labs, filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit designed to harass the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), in a desperate effort to stop the agency from passing rules that will lead to significant electrification of equipment in commercial and industrial buildings.

SCAQMD passed 1146.2, the nation’s first rule to electrify industrial boilers and water heaters, in June 2024. When fully implemented, this vital rule is projected to cut smog-forming NO_x pollution by a massive 5.6 tons per day, cleaning Los Angeles’s air while sending a clear market signal to advance zero-emissions equipment in commercial and industrial buildings across the nation. (For a sense of scale, 5.6 tons is roughly half the NO_x pollution produced by all the cars in the region per day.)

The gas industry and their allies filed their lawsuit challenging the rule in December 2024. Their case challenges SCAQMD’s regulatory authority, even though long standing precedent makes it clear that the air district has legal authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate all stationary sources of pollution in the region. The heaters and boilers covered by rule 1146.2 generate 10% of emissions from all stationary sources in the region, and electrifying these appliances will dramatically reduce NO_x emissions in Southern California.

“This lawsuit is straight out of the gas industry’s playbook, using the same law firms and front groups to do their dirty work and force Californians to rely on a polluting product,” said Candice Youngblood, Attorney in Earthjustice’s Right To Zero campaign. “Despite the flimsy arguments made in this lawsuit, the gas industry does not have a legal right to pollute our region indefinitely.”

An aerial view of smog in Los Angeles, Calif. (Robert S. Donovan / CC BY-NC 2.0)

The South Coast Air Basin, which covers Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties, is home to the worst air quality in the country. In order to bring the region’s dangerously polluted air into compliance with state and federal laws, the Air District is tasked with reducing harmful emissions from all major pollution sources, and will not be able to reach those goals without reducing emissions generated by commercial and industrial buildings.

As the number one manufacturing state in the country, emissions from California’s vital industrial sector are responsible for roughly a quarter of all greenhouse gasses in the state, the largest source after transportation. In addition to 1146.2, the SCAQMD is advancing several rules to address industrial and commercial building emissions, but the gas industry and their allies have been harassing the air district to delay and weaken the rules, and are even trying to use their specious lawsuit as a threat to stop rulemaking altogether.

Worse still, the gas industry was aggressively railing against rules to make buildings safer and cleaner right in the middle of the LA fires. On January 10, while the fires were raging, SoCalGas and their allies testified to lobby the Air District’s Governing Board, urging the region’s air regulators to delay new standards designed to make for safer buildings and clean Southern California’s air.

“Despite gas industry claims, non-polluting electric equipment is already here and has far more momentum than its gas-powered rivals,” said Kim Orbe, at Sierra Club. “Heat pump sales have outpaced new gas furnaces for the third year in a row, and the transition to electric buildings is well underway. The gas industry would love nothing more than to see Californians forced to rely on their dated, polluting product year after year — but it’s time to step into the future. We hope the Air District will have the courage to stand up to the gas industry and help our region lead in cleaning up our air.”