The Montgomery County Council passed a measure to ban fossil fuels used in new buildings, following similar steps by neighboring Washington, D.C., and other major cities across the country.
The council unanimously passed the Comprehensive Building Decarbonization bill on Tuesday. The new legislation is set to take effect at the end of 2026 and requires most commercial and residential buildings to use electricity or some other cleaner energy as their sole power source starting in 2027. The new regulations could increase the cost of constructing commercial and residential properties.
The bill makes Maryland’s largest county the first jurisdiction in the state and the third on the East Coast to enact this type of legislation, according to the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Decarbonization bills that are being passed across the country are intended to substantially reduce emissions. Buildings account for almost 40% of U.S. energy consumption, according to the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.
Similar legislation has also been passed in major cities including New York City, San Francisco and Seattle. It reached a national level this year with the passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which includes several provisions for real estate standards.
The federal legislation offers rebates for high-efficiency electric home construction and includes a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund specifically geared toward reducing buildings’ emissions. However, the Inflation Reduction Act is more focused on energy efficiency than decarbonization. It offers tax credits for installing more efficient appliances, but this can still include gas appliances as well as electric.
County Executive Marc Elrich has 10 days to approve or disapprove the bill before it will be officially enacted. In June, Elrich voiced support for the bill and said he would sign it once it achieved County Council approval.
Going into effect on Dec. 31, 2026, the bill requires new buildings, major renovations and additions constructed in the county to use electricity. The only exceptions are commercial kitchens, hospitals, crematories and buildings used for manufacturing, where electrification is either economically unfeasible or a potential safety risk. Private and public schools, income-restricted housing and residential buildings with four or more stories all have an additional year — until the end of 2027 — to implement changes.
“This is part of a big vision for how we can actually get the trends that are causing climate change under control,” Hans Riemer, an at-large councilmember who introduced the bill, said during the meeting. “We’ve been working toward building efficiency with the legislation that we previously passed. This legislation addresses new construction.”
The bill was co-sponsored by Councilmember Will Jawando.
Montgomery County passed a comprehensive Climate Action Plan in June 2021 with a strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2027 and 100% by 2025. In April 2022, the council passed a set of building performance standards for minimum energy expenditure.
In a July meeting on the bill, opponents from two chambers of commerce and Washington Gas said the bill could make it harder for the county’s power grid to keep up with increased demand. All-electric buildings can also be more expensive to construct than those built under current standards, but they are less costly to operate once complete, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Montgomery County, which includes Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville and Gaithersburg, is located on the northern border of Washington, D.C., which passed its building decarbonization bill in July. D.C.’s legislation bans natural gas and requires net-zero construction for all new buildings and substantial renovations starting in 2026. Riemer cited D.C.’s legislation as a benchmark toward which Montgomery County should try to strive.