Two Kinds of Power

DOJ vs. cities trying to quit gas, and the paperwork that makes obedience feel like “choice.”

There are two kinds of power. One kicks in a door. The other files a complaint and calls it “choice.” On January 7, 2026, the Department of Justice announced it had sued Morgan Hill and Petaluma over local ordinances restricting natural-gas infrastructure and appliances in new construction. DOJ framed it as consumer protection, costs, legality, “energy dominance,” “consumer choice.”

But the detail that changes the temperature of the story is this: both cities say they aren’t enforcing those bans, and haven’t been using them to deny permits since the Berkeley decision. So why sue a policy that’s already functionally dead? Because the lawsuit isn’t a fire extinguisher. It’s a billboard. It’s meant to be seen from every planning department in every town that ever wondered, quietly, whether it could build a safer future without asking permission from an industry that sells combustion as a birthright.

And this is where the story widens.