(The Center Square) – The Washington State Building Code Council is continuing work on proposed changes to the state’s energy code that critics insist will undermine housing supply and affordability despite loosening potential restrictions. While some testifying at a Nov. 21 public hearing argued in favor of the proposed amendments for the perceived environmental benefits, others argued it actually makes it harder for builders to comply than prior versions.
The initial energy code changes would have mandated heat pumps in new residential and commercial buildings, while prohibiting the use of natural gas for heating. The proposal drew pushback from building industry members, who later filed a lawsuit against the state. That lawsuit was later withdrawn, while the council voted in October to remove the heat pump mandate in lieu of natural gas.
The proposed amendments come after a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in May overturned a city of Berkley ordinance on installation of new natural gas piping, which the court found was preempted by federal law.
The proposed changes to the state energy code would still allow natural gas, but with additional stipulations or requirements that some testifiers at Tuesday’s hearing say make it impractical to use it.
Steve Tapio is the building science team leader for New Tradition Homes, which builds Energy Star homes. He told the council that the change “does not create a simple are streamlined pathway for compliance.”
Arguing that the prior energy code had a “reasonable path going electric,” he said that “it is now harder to stay on the all-electric pathway.” He added that most of their Energy Star homes have natural gas for space and water heating.
“In fact, it was more challenging to get homes to qualify as energy star while using heat pumps,” he said. “What about doing electrical power outages? Are homeowners to simply freeze? Natural gas provides such energy security for times such as that.”
He added, “It’s time to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better, workable plan.”
Among those testifying in favor of the amendments was Chris Hellstern, the architect and sustainability director at Seattle-based Miller Hull. He told the council that “if we keep pushing off building responsibly now, it will cost all of us more in the future because building retrofits are more expensive,” adding that “human health and environmental impacts from not addressing emissions are much higher than project dollars.”
Also in support of the proposed amendments was King County Green Code Specialist Kathleen Petrie, who said “moving towards building electrification will better support frontline communities who traditionally have greater exposure to pollution and who will bear the highest burden of costs.”
Building Industry Association of Washington Policy and Research Manage Andrea Smith wrote in an email to The Center Square that “there’s a reason the legislature and the SBCC [State Building Code Council] don’t outright ban natural gas appliances – it’s preempted by EPCA and generally unpopular. Even the City of Berkeley didn’t openly ban the appliances – just the hookups … which is essentially what we’re doing by making it so expensive to comply with the code if using natural gas.”
