Construction Informer

Senate Bill 2191 in it’s simplest definition is an attempt to legislate a reduction in green house gas emissions through a trading scheme. This sounds like another opportunity for speculators to make some money, but of course there are many players who stand to reap some benefits. That has to be the case for any legislation to see the light of day in a society that values economics so highly.

While one commentator decries the failure of the European Union’s cap and trade system as reasons not to support this one, another cites statistics that bolsters the EU’s efforts. When it comes to following the money you get the usual. All the pundits slice and dice the numbers to suit their own views so getting very deeply into that fruitless endeavor usually nets brain cramps.

But for the construction industry this bill, simplified, means a renewed effort in training a workforce and the continued drive toward mandated green building standards. The legislation proposes to deposit funds into a Climate Change Worker Training Fund in order to :

• create a sustainable, comprehensive public program that provides quality training that is linked to jobs created through low-carbon energy, sustainable energy and energy efficiency initiatives;
• satisfy industry demand for a skilled workforce through quality training and placement in job opportunities; and to
• fund federal and state industry-wide research, labor market information and labor exchange programs and to develop government administered training programs.

The bill also authorizes training partnership grants made available to various types of entities that have experience in skills training and education. Besides occupational skills training this grant money can be used for basic skills and literacy, general equivalency degrees and even English as a second language. Meanwhile a full 25 percent of the total funds collected will be available to colleges to use in ways that keep science education and research at the forefront.

An interesting development in Title V talks about the mandated Minimum Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency Design (AFUE) for various boilers for residential use. The law would require 80 to 82 percent AFUE depending upon whether the boiler is for steam or water and is fired by gas or oil. This doesn’t seem to be a very high benchmark since current Energy Star qualified boilers must have an AFUE of 85 percent.

Further on in Title V you begin to see the trend toward mandating green building standards. For example in Sec. 5102 there is a provision that starts the process of setting up "National Minimum and Regional Standards" for heating and air conditioning products. The provision also allows for the ban of the sale of products within those regions that don’t comply with the standards. Label design is even specified for the products and are supposed to contain a map of the country with shading in the areas where the products meet regional minimum requirements.

Sec. 5201 requires updating the national model building energy codes and standards within three years, and every three years thereafter, to achieve 30 percent overall energy savings "with respect to each edition of a model code or standard published"  through 2019, and 50 percent energy savings "with respect to each edition of a model code or standard published" after 2020.

Later it is required that each state certify it has reviewed and updated its codes regarding energy efficiency and that it certifies within a year that either:

• at least 90 percent of new and renovated buildings covered by the State code during the preceding calendar year substantially meet all the requirements of the code; or
• the estimated excess energy use of new and renovated buildings that did not meet the requirements of the State code during the preceding calendar year, as compared to a baseline of comparable buildings that meet the requirements of the code, is not more than 10 percent of the estimated energy use of all new and renovated buildings covered by the State code during the preceding calendar year.

It would be interesting to see just what it is going to cost the states to figure out the "estimated energy use for all the new and renovated buildings" within their jurisdictions. We better start graduating more accountants. For its part, the law will allow each state to get $500,000 to train state and local officials to implement energy codes.