New home energy standards pushed to combat climate change

From the Sierra Club:

Homes and other buildings are America’s largest consumers of energy and a major contributor of global warming. That's why the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities Campaign is joining with local governments, businesses, and energy efficiency advocates to support the most important opportunity in decades to adopt "green" building codes for new homes.

This September 17-23, building code officials from around the country will meet in Minneapolis to vote on a bold proposal to strengthen building code energy-efficiency standards in new homes by 30%. These federally-recognized residential building codes, developed by the International Code Council (ICC), establish the recommended health, safety and efficiency standards for new home construction in most cities and states in the U.S.

If the 30% Solution is approved by the ICC, then local and state governments will be able to enact these new building codes. Once adopted by communities nationwide, the 30% Solution would have a significant impact. By 2030, the 30% Solution would save an estimated 8 quadrillion BTUs of energy and $88 billion in energy costs; reduce CO2 by 464 million metric tons; and create new clean-energy construction and service jobs in the building trades and energy-efficiency product industries.

More information about joining the ICC is available at www.thirtypercentsolution.org . For activist resources, including a sample letter to your mayor, visit our 30% Solution forum at http://coolcities.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=389 .

I'm back

I am finally back from a few weeks in Michigan attending my cousin's wedding, and a couple conferences I attended in Flagstaff on issues facing rural Arizona. I should be blogging a little more frequently now, although I am busy getting signatures to get on the ballot for Creighton Elementary School District Governing Board in this November's election. In the mean time, here is a letter from my friend Tom Alston about the Goldwater Institute's attack on solar power and Arizona's renewable energy standard.