Tell SECO to update Texas Building Codes

  • by: Sierra Club
  • recipient: The Texas State Energy Conservation Office (SECO)
The Texas State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) is asking the public for input on whether or not they should improve building codes statewide. Tell them yes to more efficiency, better building codes, and clean energy jobs!

Texas is at an energy crossroads: with most of the state still suffering in drought, we need to look at ways to meet our energy needs in the least water-intensive way possible. Efficiency and building codes are cheap, clean, and the "Negawatts" the power savings produce require no water to produce, unlike dirty coal plants.

At the rate Texas is growing, updating our building codes could save enough energy to equal the output of either the proposed Las Brisas or White Stallion coal plants.

Tell SECO we need clean energy and jobs, not dirty coal.
Subject: Adopt the 2012 IECC codes today

Dear SECO,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the adoption of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Codes in Texas. With Texas facing a tight energy market, a drought that impacts energy use, and a lack of construction jobs, adopting more advanced building energy codes can be part of the solution to our state's challenges. It makes more sense to build new energy efficient homes in Texas, than build more polluting power plants.

Homeowners and business owners alike would benefit from the construction of new homes and buildings that are more energy-efficient and save money for the users. The recent analysis by the Energy Systems Laboratory found that an average sized home built to the new standards would use between 14 and 25 percent less energy than a home built to the 2009 standards currently adopted by the state.

Texas needs more efficiency, more clean energy, and less reliance on power plants that use so much water and pollute our air.

Update our building codes to bring more jobs and improve our lives.

Throughout Texas, cities like Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi and El Paso have either gone beyond the 2009 codes already who are actively considering it, while some cities like Laredo have already adopted the 2012 IECC codes. Creating a level playing field by adopting the 2012 codes would help everyone in Texas.

While builders will need a reasonable amount of time to build to the new standards, and cities will need some time to adopt the new standards, SECO should move quickly so that the standards are in place by the summer of 2013. Thus, adoption of the 2012 IECC by June 1, 2013 would be a reasonable amount of time to give builders and cities to implement the new standards.

We also request that you hold a public stakeholder meeting to receive additional input into the new standards.
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