Engaging More Architects To Meet The Compliance Goal

Posted on January 15, 2014July 20, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

by Seul Rhee While many states have worked hard to adopt the 2009 or 2012 International Energy Conservation Code, implementation and compliance are sometimes overlooked. But that is changing. National, regional, and local focus is shifting to address meeting the 90 percent compliance goal set by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Working with numerous state energy offices (22 states and counting) to investigate and assess a state’s existing energy code infrastructure, one comm...

Not Taking “No Can Do” For An Answer

Posted on November 13, 2013December 29, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

by Maria Ellingson, BCAP These days it seems that all states are taking some flak as they work toward meeting their Recovery Act obligations by the year 2017, but some aren’t taking “no can do” for an answer. It’s not always easy, especially in home-rule states where current law prohibits the state from adopting a statewide code. But that didn’t stop the state of Illinois, which passed legislation in 2009 to remove the local home-rule jurisdiction over residential energy standards, and adopt th...

Nebraska Energy Code Compliance Collaborative: A Case Study On An Emerging Best Practice

Posted on November 5, 2013July 25, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

by Paul Karrer In the wake of the Great Recession in 2009, Congress passed the Recovery Act to stimulate the national economy. Within that legislation, a pot of $3.1 billion in expanded State Energy Program (SEP) funding was linked to commitments from states to update their building energy codes and to develop plans to achieve greater rates of compliance by 2017. By January 2014, BCAP projects that about two of every three U.S. states will have implemented building energy codes that meet or ex...

2009 Energy Code Adoptions Required by ARRA – Where Are They Now?

Posted on January 21, 2013July 20, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

by Shari Shapiro A long time ago in a first term far away, there was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a.k.a the Stimulus. As explained by the DOE, the ARRA section on State Energy Program funding included a statutory provision (Section 410) linking SEP funding to building energy code adoption and enforcement. As a condition of accepting the ARRA funding, the states provided assurances through governor’s letters indicating their state would comply with the terms of Secti...