The International Code Council (ICC) praised the U.S. Senate's passage of the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016 (S. 2012), citing the Act seeks to strengthen and expand state building energy efficiency codes. The bipartisan legislation follows the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act (H.R. 8) passed last year in the House of Representatives. International Code Council Chief Executive Officer Dominic Sims commended the Senate's action on the legislation, saying, "We applaud the bipartisan group of legislators who passed this bill which, among other things, supports the continued development and update of the nation's International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), and provides funding to train code officials."
The Code Council's Government Relations staff has been actively participating in efforts seeking passage of the legislation during the past several months, and the bill has many provisions significant to ICC and its Members.
Specific to ICC, S. 2012 provides for experts — including code officials — to undertake a feasibility study to determine the merit of: code improvements to net-zero buildings; code procedures to incorporate measured lifetimes; and legislative options (at the state and local levels) for increasing energy savings from energy efficiency codes.
The Act contains several amendments and mentions ICC by name. "This is science-based, compliance- and results-driven legislation that clearly demonstrates bipartisan support for critically important energy-efficiency policies and, our lawmakers' interest in securing a sustainable energy future for all Americans," Sims added.
S. 2012 also reauthorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense program, of which ICC is a partner. Products and services that earn the WaterSense label with the ICC Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) certification mark are certified to be at least 20-percent more water efficient without sacrificing performance. ICC-ES is part of the ICC Family of Companies.
The likely next stop for S. 2012 is a conference committee with the House to reconcile both versions. If Congress is able to come up with compromise legislation that can make it through both houses, the next stop for the legislation will be the White House. Throughout this process, ICC's Government Relations will continue to actively work with our partners on Capitol Hill representing the interests of our Members. |
