Model energy building efficiency codes under the 2009
International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) could be
strengthened substantially if action taken at the just-completed
2008 Codes Forum of the International Code Council (ICC) is
upheld at the ICC annual meeting in September. The IECC, which
is amended every three years, is the model energy-efficient
building code recognized by federal law. “The IECC Development
Committee has elevated energy efficiency to the importance
today’s international energy crisis warrants,” said William Fay,
coordinator of the broad-based Energy Efficient Codes Coalition
(EECC). “By recommending the first substantial boost in model
energy codes for residential buildings in over a decade, the
committee vote has confronted one of the last frontiers of
wasted energy, a sector accounting for 40 percent of our
nation’s energy and carbon emissions and 75 percent of its
electricity.” Soon after the hearings began, the committee
turned to the EECC’s “30% Solution,” a comprehensive packag