Hr 2454

[conarb]

The House has passed HR 2454 and now it will be taken up by the Senate now that they are done with Healthcare, this is commonly known as Cap & Trade. There has been a lot of misinformation floating around the right wing E-mails, this is a summary presented to the House members and is probably all that any of them knew when they voted, I thought I'd post some sections affecting building and building codes in particular:

Section 204, Building Energy Performance Labeling Program: Establishes an EPA program to develop procedures to label buildings for their energy performance characteristics, using building type and consumption data to be developed by the Energy Information Administration. The program would be implemented by states in a manner suited to increasing public knowledge of building energy performance without hindering real estate transactions.

Subtitle A - Building Energy Efficiency Programs

Section 201, Greater Energy Efficiency in Building Codes:

Amends the Energy Conservation and Production Act to require the Secretary of Energy to support consensus code-setting organizations to establish building codes achieving 30% and 50% higher energy efficiency targets in 2010 and 2016, respectively, to establish codes directly if such organizations fail to do so, to include cool roofs standards, and to support state and local adoption of such advanced codes by supporting training and funding for energy efficiency code enforcement.

Section 202, Building Retrofit Program:

Establishes a program under which the Administrator of EPA, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, supports development of standards and processes for retrofitting existing residential and nonresidential buildings. Authorizes the Secretary of Energy to provide funding to states to conduct cost-effective building retrofits, using local governments, other agencies or entities to carry out the work, through flexible forms of financial assistance up to 50% of the costs of retrofits, with funding increasing in proportion to efficiency achievement. Also supports retrofits of historic buildings.

Section 203, Energy Efficient Manufactured Homes:

Establishes a program to provide federal rebates of up to $7,500 toward purchases of new Energy Star-rated manufactured homes for low- income families residing in pre-1976 manufactured homes.

Section 204, Building Energy Performance Labeling Program:

Establishes an EPA program to develop procedures to label buildings for their energy performance characteristics, using building type and consumption data to be developed by the Energy Information Administration. The program would be implemented by states in a manner suited to increasing public knowledge of building energy performance without hindering real estate transactions.

Subtitle E - Improvements in Energy Savings Performance Contracting

Section 251, Energy Savings Performance Contracts:

Amends the National Energy Conservation Policy Act to establish competition requirements for specific energy savings performance contract task orders.¹

I find the statement "to establish codes directly if such organizations fail to do so, to include cool roofs standards, and to support state and local adoption of such advanced codes by supporting training and funding for energy efficiency code enforcement." interesting, no wonder the ICC is busy drafting Energy and Green Codes, if they don't the government will! We will all soon be living in "labeled" houses within 5 years if the Senate leaves this in, just like refrigerators.¹ http://www.hillheat.com/files/ACES_toc.html

 

[vegas paul]

In Baltimore, last November, the Deputy UnderSecretary of energy (or something like that) spoke for about an hour. She made it VERY clear that if individual jurisdictions did not adopt Energy Codes, that the Feds would gladly provide, them, and in fact, require them. And she was clear that we wouldn't like theirs very much. So, it sounds like the IECC is headed towards "safe-harbor" status (I hope) kind of like ANSI A117.1.