Page 22 - CodeWatcher Summer 2017

Is the Bedrock

of the ICC Safe

from Erosion?

Powerful special interests alarmed by building energy

code gains are working hard to reduce the essential role

of building officials in the code development process.

BY BILL FAY NAHB’s latest assault on energy codes is a toolkit of weak-
ening amendments, “How to Modify the Codes in Your State.”
N 2010, AFTER THE DUST SETTLED on the fi nal As odd as it seems that one of ICC’s “Strategic Partners”
2012 IECC, which boosted the energy effi ciency of would be among the sharpest critics and most effective
new homes by 38%, powerful opponents went to opponents of I-Codes, the ICC Board’s response to NAHB’s
work to attack and challenge the new code and, more criticisms of the 2012 IECC was even odder: It split the
signifi cantly, change the ICC’s Code Development 15-person IECC Code Development Committee into two
Committee structure to prevent future residential 12-person committees–one residential and the other
Iimprovements in the effi ciency of the International commercial–and gave NAHB virtual control over the former
Energy Conservation Code (IECC). by assigning them four of the 11 voting seats, instead of the
It’s ironic that those “powerful effi ciency opponents” one seat they had previously.
include three of the ICC’s fi ve “Strategic Partners”–the The result of giving one organization so much power over
Building Owners & Managers Association (BOMA), the a code that ultimately regulates them is strikingly clear:
National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), and the After historic effi ciency improvements in the 2009 and 2012
National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB). All three IECC raised the profi le of the IECC at national and state
can be counted on to oppose nearly all proposals that levels, the 2015 and 2018 IECC have yielded very minor
boost building effi ciency, both during IECC development effi ciency improvements.
and before state legislatures and other bodies considering In addition, during the CDP for 2018 IECC, the Residential
IECC adoption. Energy Committee favorably recommended a large number

22 CodeWatcher / Summer 2017 www.codewatcher.us