Morris Township has landed in President Trump’s crosshairs.
The Department of Justice this week sued to nullify a 2022 “all electric” clean energy ordinance that bans use of natural gas, propane and fuel oil in new apartment buildings.
Filed in federal court in the District of New Jersey, the civil complaint alleges the ordinance drives up energy costs for consumers and weakens the country’s “energy dominance.”
This reflects “a radical left effort to outlaw federally regulated gas stoves, furnaces, water heaters, dryers, and other appliances that American families rely on daily to cook their meals and heat their homes,” according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Mayor Donna Guariglia, Consulting Township Engineer Joseph Vuich, and Construction Code Official Ron Auth are named as defendants.
Guariglia said Wednesday she will comment after the Township’s lawyers review the complaint. Township Administrator Tim Quinn said the municipality has not yet been served with the legal papers, though it has seen the litigation and it’s under legal review.
The ordinance requiring new apartment complexes with 12 or more units to be all-electric violates the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, contends the DOJ, which earlier this year successfully sued the California cities of Petaluma and Morgan Hill to rescind their ordinances prohibiting natural gas. The federal government also has joined a challenge to a similar ban in New York City.
Morris Township’s ordinance cites adverse health effects, especially in children, from carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and other pollutant from gas appliances.
The governing body also aimed to reduce overall energy demand, and address “the serious threats posed by climate change” by enhancing energy conservation construction requirements, the ordinance states.
It was in line with New Jersey and federal sustainability goals, then-Mayor Mark Gyorfy said at the Township Committee meeting of April 20, 2022. The measure was introduced by a unanimous vote that included the Committee’s lone Republican at the time, Peter Mancuso, and was adopted 5-0 on May 18, 2022.
Federal officials said they were fighting state and local “overreach,” to help fulfill President Trump’s “promise to the American people to restore consumer freedom and cut energy costs.”
“Radical environmentalist policies that drive up costs and limit consumer choice will not stand,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward added: “The Department brought this lawsuit to protect American citizens the Township abandoned by kowtowing to progressive fearmongering in passing its natural gas ban.”
The lawsuit was first noticed by Seamus Hughes, a terrorism expert at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, and reported by the New Jersey Globe.
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Democrats and their Green New Deal nonsense are all about virtue signaling, making things more expensive, and reducing consumer choices. I hope the feds win this.
Nobody wants or should be forced into all electric anything. It is impractical, aggressive, and not well suited to impact residents in the short or long term.
These elementary techniques of considering short/long term impacts are long gone by these in the moment decision makers.
New Jersey Democrats have long sought to balance environmental stewardship with responsible local governance. That is precisely why this ordinance requiring apartment buildings to rely exclusively on electric utilities warrants closer scrutiny under this challenge, even in the face of 2022’s unanimous support. While the goal of reducing emissions is widely shared, this mandate moves too quickly and risks undermining housing affordability for Morris Township residents.
The recent six-hour public meeting focused on affordable housing underscores how seriously the Township Committee takes affordability concerns. And current volatility in electric utility pricing should view the DOJ’s challenge as an opportunity to reevaluate this ordinance before its impacts become locked in.
Since 2022 electric utility costs continue to rise across Morris County, and winter heating demand here is not hypothetical, it is a certainty. All electric apartment buildings, especially those dependent on electric heat, expose renters to higher and more variable winter utility bills. Tenants have no role in building design decisions, yet they absorb the 100% of the consequences through higher monthly costs and rents. In effect, this ordinance shifts heating expenses from developers to tenants, plain and simple. Apartment dwellers (e.g. seniors, working class people and fixed income folks), are exactly the residents that democrats claim to want to protect, however, this action indicates otherwise with 20:20 hindsight of this past winter’s expenses.
If affordability is truly a priority, the Township Committee should reconsider a mandate that increases residents’ exposure to 2025-26 electric price swings. BTW, the ordinance also overlooks the region’s reliable access to natural gas, which has helped maintain more predictable heating costs during the coldest months. Modern gas systems remain efficient and well suited to suburban communities like Morris Township, where infrastructure already exists. Eliminating this option too rapidly raises construction and retrofit costs that inevitably flow to residents and tenants…again, think this past winter when recent generation constraints translated into higher winter electric bills statewide.
Finally, grid capacity cannot be ignored. Accelerated electrification adds substantial demand to an electric system not yet equipped for it, increasing cost and reliability risks for everyone. Add an apartment building onto a data center, why do you?
A phased, balanced approach allowing mixed fuel systems and aligning climate goals with infrastructure readiness and affordability would better serve Morris Township and its residents.
It’s funny how our local Dems don’t think of the residents first? It reminds me of Mikie Sherrill’s ad, “Its going to cost you an arm and a leg, but if you’re a good person, you’ll do it”