The Supreme Court tossed a lower court’s ruling that had upheld Biden-era regulations on gas furnaces and commercial water heaters, which opponents argued were overreaching and would ban various gas appliances from being sold.
The high court announced its decision in an order list released Monday, sending the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after quickly vacating the appeals court’s November 2025 ruling. The ruling comes as the Trump administration has already repealed several of the Biden administration’s controversial appliance rules and regulations since returning to the White House last year.
A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 that the regulations were lawful, finding that Congress gave the Department of Energy broad discretion to enact such rules under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The case was argued in November 2024, with the Biden administration defending the rules, but a ruling was not issued until November 2025. The Trump administration said it viewed the regulations as “factually and legally flawed.” The Supreme Court’s Monday order allows the Trump administration to argue its differing position to the lower appeals court.
A coalition of energy companies, led by the American Gas Association, filed a petition to the Supreme Court earlier this year, arguing the justices should reverse the D.C. Circuit’s ruling as a violation of the standard set in the 2024 ruling Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which limited federal agencies’ rulemaking ability, by arguing the Biden Department of Energy overreached with the gas appliance regulations. The petition also warned that Biden-era rules at the center of the lawsuit would “force millions of Americans with gas appliances to either renovate their homes or switch to electric appliances.”
In its response to the petition, the Trump administration said it wanted the high court to quickly toss the D.C. Circuit’s ruling and send it back to the appeals court “because the government agrees that the rules at issue rest on a legal error.”
The brief from Solicitor General D. John Sauer said that the Department of Energy under President Donald Trump “has determined that the rules at issue are factually and legally flawed, and the agency is considering a new rulemaking in which it would correct those errors.” Sauer suggested that sending the case back to the appeals court could also allow it to essentially pause the case while it considers a new gas appliance rule.
The coalition of energy companies said they did not oppose the Trump administration’s request to toss the ruling and return to the appeals court, saying such a decision should happen “at minimum,” in a reply brief. The Supreme Court did just that with its Monday order, allowing the legal war over the regulations to continue back in the D.C. Circuit.
THE MAJOR SUPREME COURT DECISIONS REMAINING FOR THIS TERM
In Monday’s orders list, the justices did not add any cases to the list of cases they have decided to hear in their upcoming term, which will begin in October. The Supreme Court has already announced 11 cases it will hear in the next term, but will likely add dozens more cases over the coming months.
For the current Supreme Court term, which is set to conclude in the coming weeks, the high court is next scheduled to issue opinions in pending cases it heard earlier this term on Thursday. The Supreme Court has yet to release opinions in 23 cases it heard arguments in, but is expected to do so by the end of the month.