commentEvery state in the U.S. committed to adopting building energy codes in order to receive money through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), but halfway through the time allowed for compliance, many states still do not meet the requirements. Attorney Shari Shapiro points out on the Green Building Law blog that every state provided a governor’s letter stating its intent to comply with ARRA Section 410, linking State Energy Program (SEP) funding to adoption and enforcement of the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) for residential buildings and ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007 for commercial buildings. Section 410 also required a program of training and annual compliance measurement, aimed at 90 percent compliance by 2017.
Although California, Washington, Illinois, and Maryland have adopted more stringent codes than required by ARRA for both residential and commercial building, 18 states still do not meet the residential requirements, and 15 do not meet the commercial requirements—including eight states with no statewide building energy codes at all.
Copyright 2013 by BuildingGreen Inc.
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