|
Bill that would mandate green building standards
advances
Apr 18 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Katherine Conrad San Jose Mercury News, Calif. After watching his bill on voluntary green building guidelines die last year, Assemblyman John Laird has introduced another one that's even tougher. That means homes would have to be constructed with higher energy efficiency, on-site electricity generation from photo-voltaic panels, water-efficient landscaping and low-flow water features. Bill Maxfield, Laird's communications director, said Tuesday that the assemblyman has upped the ante on green building because of the public's appetite for all things green. "The environment on the environment has changed," he said. The proposed legislation would allow home builders to voluntarily build green for the first two years, followed by two years of builder feedback and potential revision of the guidelines. Then the law would become mandatory. If passed, California would be the first state in the country to mandate green home-building guidelines. AB888, also co-authored by Laird and Lieu and introduced this session, would enact similar measures for commercial buildings. On Monday, both bills passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and are now heading through the Assembly committee process. They'll have to be voted on by the full Assembly before they can be sent to the Senate. The final hurdle is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who last year signed a landmark bill to halt the effects of global warming. The fact that green building proposals would be mandatory rather than voluntary raises hackles in the building industry, which insists it already supports green building practices. "We embrace green building," said Joseph Perkins, president of the Home Builders of Northern California. "We think it's a growing part of the home-building business, but we want it to be done ... in cooperation with the companies doing the building rather than people who have nothing to do with building imposing their standards on the industry." Perkins noted that while the public appears to support green practices, the reaction often changes when buyers are faced with higher prices. "If the house comes with a price tag that is $50,000 or even $30,000 higher, it will be a deterrent to buyers," he said. Bob Raymer, technical director for the 7,000-member California Building Industry Association, said his organization "almost supported" Laird's earlier bill last year calling for voluntary compliance. But he said the group cannot support a mandatory requirement. He also questioned another element of the proposed legislation that would pass the responsibility for overseeing the green building program from the state's Building Standards Commission to the state Environmental Protection Agency. "The bill would establish an agency that has never ever done building standards before as the lead entity to do building standards," Raymer said. "We want to get uniform voluntary guidelines produced, work the bugs out, and then start talking about mandates. You don't do both," Raymer said. He added that two years of voluntary compliance followed by two years to revise the guidelines "is not enough time." |