More than a dozen California cities and counties have adopted 'reach codes' — local building rules that go beyond state energy standards to encourage electrification and reduce fossil fuel use. Implementation has stalled because of AB 130, a state law intended to ease the housing crisis by imposing a six-year moratorium on most building code updates. The law has a narrow exception for local climate measures, and jurisdictions seeking that exception say they are stuck in a lengthy approval bottleneck.
Since the moratorium began in October 2025, 21 jurisdictions have passed such ordinances, including 14 that incentivize replacing gas furnaces and air conditioners with electric heat pumps. The California Building Standards Commission has approved seven of these reach codes. Seventeen proposals from 15 jurisdictions — among them Alameda, Glendale, Marin County, Palo Alto, and San Luis Obispo — remain pending, some for nearly a year. In the past, the commission's review took days, according to Anthony Eulo of Silicon Valley Clean Energy.
Local officials say their ordinances meet AB 130's exemption requirements because they align with previously adopted greenhouse-gas reduction plans and allow mixed-fuel construction rather than banning gas. Alameda's sustainability manager told the commission the city's amendments qualify, and the city answered follow-up questions in February but has still not received a decision. The commission says the pending codes contain more complex amendments and are still under review.
The delay matters for California's climate goals: buildings account for about a quarter of the state's emissions, and the state aims to cut emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The uncertainty is also chilling other efforts. Several jurisdictions have paused their own code adoption processes because of the delays, according to Colleen Corrigan of the San Francisco Bay Area Urban Planning Research Association. The moratorium was meant to make housing development easier, but it is now also holding up local climate action.