Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm warned the creators of the nation’s most widely used model for building energy codes yesterday that their work could be sliding toward “irrelevance” in addressing climate change. The latest codes of the International Code Council (ICC) for buildings’ energy use, which are now being promoted by the Energy Department, call for a nearly 10 percent increase in efficiency. But they exclude other provisions that would have prepared new homes for electric vehicles and electric appliances for space and water heating, after natural gas and real estate associations managed to defeat them. Those industries convinced ICC earlier this year to eliminate an online voting process that had attracted government officials who largely supported the EV and electric-appliance provisions. The elimination caused an uproar from clean energy advocates, who accused ICC of “changing the rules in the middle of the game” when the decision was made last March.
By David Iaconangelo. E&E News. September 21, 2021.
