GOP Tries To Block Biden Rule Reducing Americans' Utility Bills

LOADING ERROR LOADING The “real people” facing the “real consequences” of a Biden administration policy designed to reduce Americans’ utility bills by $2 billion are surreally photogenic. Since the Mount Rushmore State has no enforced statewide code in place, builders may “have to adopt new construction practices.” LeBaron recently worked with federal regulators to come up with a formula for calculating what it takes for homes to be “net-zero emissions.” By contrast, he said, meeting the ICC codes issued in 2021 amounted to just an incremental step forward. “Energy savings pay for themselves over time and even pay for themselves on day one.” Like South Dakota, most states are using outdated codes considered less efficient than the 2021 ICC codes, federal data shows. But LBA spokesperson Ken Gear said a “critical point that HUD acknowledged but seemingly ignored is that this will increase down-payment requirements for buyers because energy-efficient upgrades generally are not accounted for in home appraisals.” The lobby group hired the consultancy Home Innovation Research Labs to study the costs of implementing the 2021 codes in Massachusetts and Missouri, and it found “actual construction cost increases.” In Kansas City, where the 2021 rules are in effect, LBA said building permit numbers show “a clear reduction in the production of housing.” “So, we know that HUD’s model-generated estimates are not accurate,” Gear said in an email. If the FHFA followed the other agencies in using the ICC’s greener codes, it would cover a combined 70% of all new housing in the U.S. At a Senate hearing in April, FHFA chief Sandra Thompson said her agency, which is independent from the Biden administration, would “probably” make a decision by the end of June.