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Monday, May 16, 2011
Energy Efficiency Rules Targeted
By Deborah Baker
Copyright © 2011 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
SANTA FE — The Construction Industries Commission is proposing to roll back energy efficiency standards for new homes and commercial buildings that were adopted last year, before Republican Gov. Susana Martinez took office.
The proposal carries out the recommendation of Martinez's task force on making New Mexico more business-friendly.
And it would further unravel the environmental legacy of Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson's administration, which worked for more than a year crafting what supporters say is one of the most energy-efficient building codes in the nation.
The Construction Industries Division will hold simultaneous hearings on the proposal June 2 in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Farmington and Roswell.
The commission could vote on the rollback as early as its June 10 meeting.
The proposed change would put New Mexico's building codes in line with national codes. The codes adopted by the commission last year require greater energy efficiency than the national standards.
Regulation and Licensing Department Superintendent J. Dee Dennis Jr., appointed by Martinez, said the rollback would "send a message that we are open for business."
He said with the current energy conservation requirements, adopted under the Richardson administration, New Mexico is placing a significant financial burden on property owners, developers and builders that other states in the region don't impose.
"This is not driven by any ideological belief, but a commonsense approach to help grow our economy in these tough times while adopting a national energy standard," Dennis told the Journal.
Sierra Club spokesman Shrayas Jatkar said the rollback — which he said exemplifies the Martinez administration's "pro-corporate agenda" — would saddle small businesses and households with higher utility bills and add to environmental pollution.
"It's clear that Gov. Martinez is committed to undoing the progress we've made in New Mexico rather than advancing efforts to save consumers money and improve public health," Jatkar said in a statement after commission member Kevin Yearout of Albuquerque unveiled the proposal at an April 22 meeting.
Yearout, a mechanical contractor, and another commission member, architect Dale Dekker, served on Martinez's Small-Business Friendly Task Force, which recommended the rollback.
The current building codes took effect this year, although a six-month grace period means they're not mandatory until July. And a few of the energy conservation provisions for commercial buildings don't kick in until 2013.
But training in the new codes has been under way for months — it will ultimately be provided in 14 cities — and about 4,000 copies of the codes were printed, according to critics of the rollback.
The critics say changing the codes again will cause confusion and require taxpayer dollars to be spent to re-trace those steps.
Dennis, the Regulation and Licensing superintendent, downplayed the potential impact of the proposal, saying it would not mean starting over.
Eliminating the additional energy conservation requirements would still leave most of the codes intact, and most of the training for builders, code inspectors and others would still be relevant, he contended.
The current national codes increased energy savings about 10 percent over previous codes. Under the New Mexico version, it's estimated that new homes would be 20 percent more energy efficient than previously required; new commercial buildings would be about 17 percent more energy efficient, increasing to 20 percent when the 2013 changes took effect.
Supporters of the current codes say the energy savings would amount to about $14 a month for the average homeowner.
Supporters also say the current codes were altered from the national model to take into account factors specific to New Mexico — kiva fireplaces, for example, and passive solar features, as well as the variation in climate zones that can occur within small regions of the state.
Those changes would be lost if the state reverted to the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code, which is the national model.
The push by the Richardson administration for more energy efficient buildings was part of his broader goal of reducing per capita energy use in New Mexico 20 percent from the 2005 level by 2020.
The construction and commercial real estate industries objected last year that the stricter New Mexico code would put the state at a disadvantage in a time of economic distress.
"By rolling back the codes, New Mexico remains cost competitive in building new or remodeling residential and commercial properties while still implementing substantial energy savings," Lynne Andersen, president of NAIOP NM, the commercial real estate development association, said in an April 21 letter to the CID.
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