As initiatives to ban natural gas ramp up in some U.S. cities, especially Democrat-led cities, a growing number of Republican-introduced bills are seeking to preemptively quash any such bans on a statewide level. Berkeley, California, was one of the first cities to implement a natural gas ban. Some cities in Washington, New York, and Massachusetts have followed suit. Most bans prohibit natural gas hookups in new construction only, but some have goals to gradually implement the bans in existing homes. Iowa and Kansas passed state laws this month to prohibit their cities from imposing natural gas bans, following the example of Arizona, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Louisiana last year and earlier this year. Several other midwestern states have introduced similar bills. “We are preventing folks from interfering with the free flow of energy at market prices, and we are preventing cities from interrupting local decision-making at the family levels,” Republican Iowa …