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 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.

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.

In 2007, the Texas State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) received authority from Texas Legislators (Senate Bill 12 and House Bill 3693 of the 80th Legislature Session-2007) to adopt by rule the latest published edition of the IECC and the IRC, after written recommendations from ESL and publish for public review and comments. The bills took effect on September 1, 2007.

Through the National Association of Counties (NACo) Green Government Initiative, the association has launched a "Green Counties" Searchable Database of counties implementing pro-environment and energy efficient practices, policies and programs.

New Hampshire implemented IECC 2006 with a minimum of difficulty on August 17, 2007. In October, after a public hearing, the NH Building Code Review Board amended the code to configure the state into a single climate zone, Zone 6. As written in the IECC 2006, Zone 6 covers a majority of the state's territory and more closely reflects construction standards under the superseded IECC 2000 code.

There are currently training courses available on the updated ECCCNYS 2007. These courses make up a four hour Code Enforcement In-service Training program addressing the changes to the 2007 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State which became effective on January 1, 2008.

The Wisconsin statutory mandate for superinsulation of one and two-family dwellings heated by electricity was repealed by recently-signed 2007 Act 67, which will be effective at the end of March. The act says: "The department may not promulgate or enforce a rule that requires that any one-family or two-family dwelling that uses electricity for space heating be superinsulated." S&B will be developing rules in the future to remove the current regulations, which are not now enforceable.