Shadow agency pushes costly Energy Codes on homebuilders that increase housing prices, but could be legally binding. (Opinion)
by Haley Holik
Jaws dropped when former Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the nation in 2010 that Congress had to “pass [Obamacare] so you can find out what’s in it.” It was unfathomable that a group of lawmakers could pass something they didn’t bother to read or share with the public. Imagine now, our government enforcing rules it didn’t even bother to write, and never plans to share with us at all.
It happens more than you think—and it’s happening right now in New Hampshire. Democrats, with outside pressure from Washington, D.C. power players, are trying to force through a “green energy tax in disguise” (also known as the 2021 Energy Codes) onto every new home construction in the state.
Republicans are rejecting it, and for good reason.
The codes were written by an unaccountable private entity called the International Code Council and would impose expensive standards on how every new home must be constructed across the state. Even though the rules were designed by a private group, they would be enforced as if they were written by the EPA if they’re allowed to take effect.
The standards written by these private groups become legally binding when they are adopted in a process called “incorporation by reference.” And legislators rarely read the actual codes; they just adopt them to spare themselves the time and effort of thinking it through themselves.
The International Code Council is far from the only private group peddling its pre-made rules to our modern government. These shadow agencies span many sectors of the economy and affect the lives and livelihoods of everyone from Medicare patients to truckers, architects, and beyond.
Their rules are protected by copyright, so they are often paywalled. In other words, if the average citizen wants to read and understand a code, they have to “buy it to see what’s in it.” And it could cost anywhere between $30 and $3,000.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) rubber-stamped Obamacare at face value in 2010, and it looks like she intends to do the same with these new rules. In an op-ed pressuring state lawmakers to support the 2021 Energy Codes, she claims mandating energy regulations on homes will make living in New Hampshire more affordable. But where is the evidence to support that claim?
In fact, research shows the opposite.
A New Hampshire Home Builders Association membership survey (or, a survey of the professionals who will actually be writing estimates and invoices for new home construction projects in the state) predicts the increased costs could be up to $20,000 for a 2,000-square-foot home built by a smaller construction company—and that’s not the worst of it.
For a “net zero” home of the same size, the cost may jump to $93,000, not including interest that’ll accrue on the accompanying 30-year fixed mortgage at current rates. Now that is a housing crisis. It would take you a lifetime to recoup those costs. (If you’re lucky.)
But the senator, along with others pushing for the changes, want you to disregard our homebuilders across New Hampshire who know a thing or two on the topic, and instead take the word of a private council, the members of which have never left the shadows to set foot inside the Granite State.
They also want you to disregard Appendix A in the 2021 Energy Codes, which grants states and local communities the authority to mandate that all homes be built to a “net zero” energy standard. That means no oil or gas—not even to heat your home.
Forcing these expensive green energy mandates onto potential home builders and buyers will make living in New Hampshire impossible to afford. Of course, those operating in the shadows don’t care. You’d have to actually live in New Hampshire to care about that sort of thing.
Haley Holik is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability. She wrote this for NHJournal.com.
Originally published by Inside Sources. Republished with permission.
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