States, Cities Revamping Energy Codes With New Government Grants

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Today’s email is presented by our friends at Otis. Learn more about modernizing your tired elevator. In today’s email, we examine how the federal government is giving over $240 million in grants to help cities adopt energy-efficient building codes, reduce emissions, and strengthen electric grids.

Now, let’s dig in!

States, Cities Revamping Energy Codes With New Government Grants

The federal government recently announced it was giving more than $240 million to local and state governments to help adopt and implement new building codes aimed at increasing energy efficiency. Through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the federal grants will be used by cities like Seattle and New York City to retool existing building codes and to create programs that support and help building owners meet the new codes, as well as help residents and commercial building owners save on their utility bills.

The grants are part of the Biden administration’s “Investing in America” agenda, with funding coming from the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark piece of legislation that was passed in 2022. The program will be administered through the DOE’s Office of State and Community Energy Programs. In its announcement of the grants, the DOE cited recent analysis from National Laboratories that illustrates how building energy codes strengthen electric grids by making them more resilient, which can be life-saving during extreme weather events that are becoming more common due to climate change. 

Last summer, the Biden Administration announced similar funding for supporting more efficient and resilient building energy codes. In July 2023, the DOE announced $90 million in competitive awards to help states, cities, tribes, and partnering organizations implement new, updated energy codes for buildings. This new set of grants for 19 different states and cities builds on that groundwork, and grantees of the funding will also receive direct technical assistance to help support and implement traditional energy codes, zero energy codes, and building performance standards. 

Cities receiving grants include Cincinnati, Ohio, which will lead a team that also includes fellow Ohio cities Cleveland, Columbus, and Dayton in using $10 million toward developing and adopting a building performance standard and creating the Ohio High Performance Buildings Hub, described as a one-stop shop for matching building owners to financing solutions and incentives. Philadelphia will use $19.8 million in funding to build a building performance standard from the ground up as well as implement and enforce the standard in order to slash emissions from large buildings. Other states and cities receiving grants include Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Kansas City, Missouri; New York City; and the states of Colorado, Hawaii, and Massachusetts.

The White House’s focus on building codes has been a priority for some time. Two years ago, the Biden Administration launched the National Initiative to Advance Building Codes and has been working toward more cities and states adopting and implementing ramped up codes ever since. According to FEMA, two out of every three communities across the country have not adopted the latest building codes due in part to a lack of resources to help support their implementation. 

Stricter building codes have been on the rise in recent years, with cities like New York leading the way. The passage of Local Law 97 in 2019 by NYC lawmakers marked a big moment in the building decarbonization movement, as the requirements of the law are some of the most stringent regulations ever adopted in the U.S. However, as the city has discovered as compliance deadlines have approached, upgrading buildings to comply with the new mandates has proved to be challenging for many buildings in the city. While the need to curb emissions and upgrade building systems to be more efficient has continued to become more clear in light of climate change, these efforts come at a big cost. The outcome of these recent grants and other programs run by the DOE could be an important test of how government support can help offset those costs.

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