Building Codes Assistance Project

The Maine Legislature passed a bill on April 18, 2008 to adopt and enforce a statewide energy code.  The bill also establishes the Division of Building Codes and Standards to administer the code and provide techncial support.  The bill requires that the 2009 IECC (along with the 2009 versions of the IBC, IRC, and IEBC) will be incorporated into the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code and that future versions of these codes update the Maine state code.  Enforcement of the statewide code will start on June 1, 2010.

This Earth Day, Montgomery County (located in Maryland, just north of Washington, DC ) took a bold step towards reducing carbon emissions and saving energy by adopting the US EPA's ENERGY STAR standards for all new homes.  The county council unanimously approved the bill which will go into effect January 2010.  The move will improve home energy use by 15 to 30 percent above minimum energy code levels.  For more on the story, see the Washington Post article at:

US Department of Energy has announced that Energy Codes 2008 will be held July 22-35 in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Crowne Plaza St. Paul-Riverfront.  Come and participate for hands-on training and unique networking opportunities with state energy office representatives and members of the building industry.  Registration will open soon and be available at www.energycodes.gov

The State Energy Conservation Office (SECO), in cooperation with the Energy Systems Laboratory of the Texas A & M University and the Texas Association of Builders, is funding a series of residential energy code workshops in various cities throughout the state of Texas to help disseminate the needed information about building science technology.

The New Buildings Institute (NBI) has just released a report of measured energy performance of LEED buildings. The study gathered whole building energy data from 121 LEED NC buildings across the country that had been occupied for at least one year. It was prepared by NBI and funded by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.