Brian Baran Speaks on EPCA Preemption at the Environmental Law Conference
RJLF lawyer Brian Baran will speak on October 16 at the California Lawyers Association’s 35th Annual Environmental Law Conference at Yosemite.
Brian joins the panel “The Heat is On: Legal Tensions in Building Decarbonization, Appliances, and Emissions.” The session takes a practical look at the fast-moving legal landscape around federal preemption under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). It also covers challenges to local electrification ordinances and the reach of emission rules under the Clean Air Act.
Brian has been at the center of these cases. RJLF secured a precedent-setting victory in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, where the Ninth Circuit held that EPCA preempts a municipal ban on natural gas piping in new construction. Since then, the firm has led EPCA challenges to gas appliance restrictions in California and New York. Brian argued the appeal in Rinnai America Corp. v. South Coast Air Quality Management District before the Ninth Circuit and the firm’s two related New York appeals before the Second Circuit.
He will be joined by panelists Lauren Tarpey of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger and Abi Vijayan of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and moderator Brian Tomasovic of the South Coast AQMD.
Session details
Friday, October 16, 2026
11:00 AM to 12:30 PM PT