The Big Take

The Restaurants That Don’t Want to Break Up With Gas Stoves

After a California restaurant association defeated a gas ban, their win raised questions about how the fight was funded — and what it means for future regulation.

A chef cooks over a flame at a restaurant in the Oakland Food Hall in 2021.Photographer: Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images/Hearst Newspapers
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After Berkeley, California, became the first city in the US to ban natural gas in new buildings in 2019, it gained an unlikely opponent: the California Restaurant Association. The industry group sued the city, and kicked off a four-year-plus legal battle that ended with the city backing down. But when Bloomberg’s Ben Elgin started following the money, he found evidence that raised questions about where the association got its support.