On September 21st, city and county building code officials attending the ICC hearings in Minneapolis from across the country will cast America’s most important energy, environmental, and climate policy vote of 2008. This vote will affect the energy efficiency of home construction for decades to come, and your employees will decide the outcome.
Dear Mr. or Madame Mayor or County Executive,
In September, your building code officials have the opportunity to cast the most important energy conservation vote of the year. At stake is a comprehensive proposal to boost the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) by 30 percent over its 2006 counterpart. As you are no doubt aware, cities and states throughout the country use this code to establish baseline energy efficiency standards for residential construction. It’s also the only model residential energy code recognized in federal law.
The broad-based Energy Efficiency Codes Coalition (EECC), is urging code officials to vote YES on the proposal, known as “The 30% Solution,” which uses a variety of affordable, everyday products and construction methods—such as efficient lighting and windows, and higher levels of insulation—to make new homes 30 percent more energy efficient than today’s existing homes.
“The 30% Solution” is the only comprehensive proposal before the International Code Council that will achieve this ambitious goal, and the EECC is far from the only voice calling for it. In fact, support for a 30 percent boost in America’s residential energy code includes such diverse groups as the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Business Roundtable, the Sierra Club, the American Institute of Architects, and the Western Governors Association, to name a few.
City mayors are mobilizing behind this effort as well. After Mayors Palmer (of Trenton, NJ), Diaz (of Miami, FL), Nickels (of Seattle, WA), Fenty (of Washington, DC) and Bloomberg (of New York) joined Mayor Wynn (of Austin, TX) in urging the ICC to support “The 30% Solution,” the full US Conference of Mayors followed up with a unanimous resolution urging all mayors to send their code officials to Minneapolis to help win this most significant environmental vote. More and more mayors, like the 850 who have signed the Mayors for Climate Protection agreement, are realizing that homes and other buildings (which together consume 40 percent of the nation’s energy use and 75 percent of its electricity) must be a large part of any climate solution.
In this time of skyrocketing prices for all forms of energy, it’s amazing that energy codes have remained stagnant for the last two decades. Keep in mind that making a new home more energy efficient will pay dividends over its 40-50 year life. As the elected leader of your community you have a chance to make a real difference in this area—to positively influence the energy efficiency of your city, county and country for decades to come. In fact, sending your code officials to vote for “The 30% Solution” in Minneapolis could be the most effective environmental policy investment you’ll ever make.
Some have voiced concern about the impact on homeowners and building code officials of raising the bar for home energy efficiency by 30 percent. Yet consumers are willing to pay more for an energy-efficient house. A study published in February 2008 by the National Association of Home Builders found that a majority of consumers would be willing to pay up to $11,000 more for their home, if they could lower their annual energy costs by $1,000.
In fact, each $1000 spent on energy efficiency will raise monthly mortgage payments by only about $6, an amount that will be more than offset by the house’s monthly energy savings—savings homebuyers will start seeing the day they move in. Low-income homebuyers, in particular, may consider the slightly higher mortgage payment a good investment in view of expected future increases in energy prices. The fact is, strengthening residential energy efficiency standards means giving homeowners more control over their monthly energy bills and a lower total cost of ownership.
And for the code officials who will be enforcing the stricter standards, the EECC has pledged its support for efforts at the national, state and local level to ensure full funding for manpower
and training programs to facilitate code development, administration and enforcement.
So, Mr. or Madame Mayor or Executive, I urge you to take advantage of the opportunity to support this ambitious, achievable and affordable step towards energy-efficient communities. If this proposal fails to pass in September, the next opportunity to improve the code won’t be until 2012. By then, we will have spent over two decades with only modest improvements in energy guidelines for new homes. I strongly encourage you to send your delegation of building and energy officials to the ICC Hearings in Minneapolis on September 17-23 to vote YES for “The 30% Solution.”
If you or your staff have questions about this issue, please contact me at the EECC, telephone 202-857-0666, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Sincerely,
William D. Fay, Code Coalition Director
Energy Efficient Codes Coalition
www.thirtypercentsolution.org
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