Update on the International Code Council (ICC) September  19-26 Annual Conference and  Public Comment  Hearings in Pittsburgh.

The ICC Annual Conference and  Public Comment  Hearings for the Group A Codes  will be held in Pittsburgh beginning on September 19 through September 26. The agenda for the Conference and Public Hearings can be found here. AGA is sponsoring a Conference Mobile App and also the Welcome Reception on Sunday evening, the 19th beginning at 6:00 p.m.   Of prime interest to the natural gas industry is that the Public Comment Hearing for the International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) that will be held on September 21. In April, the IFGC Code Development Committee approved the  AGA  BECS Committee proposal to reinstate provisions to allow natural gas piping to penetrate below grade applications (FG2-21) agreeing that there is no justification for the current prohibition and this installation option should be permitted as it is in the National Fuel Gas Code.   AGA has also submitted a code proposal to the International Plumbing Code (P9-21)  that was approved by the International Plumbing Committee Code Development Committee, that will require insulated copper tracer wires or another approved conductor installed for plastic sewer piping that will help in locating the buried piping and can  minimize cross boring incidents with buried natural gas lines. AGA staff will be participating in the Public Comment hearings testifying in support of the BECS Committee proposals  and other proposals important to the natural gas industry that are on the agenda beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 21st. Note that only in-person testimony will be permitted at the hearings and no virtual participation will be available.  Following the hearings, all recommendations made on all  the Group A Codes will be presented to the eligible ICC voters for online voting.  For anyone planning to attend the ICC Conference and the Public Comment Hearings you can register here .
AGA, APGA, NPGA and  Spire Inc., to Request  60 Day Extension for Responding to the DOE Notification of Proposed Interpretive Rule (NPIR) and Request for Comment to Eliminate Separate Product Classes for Non-Condensing and Condensing Vented Gas Appliances.
AGA, the American Public Gas Association, National Propane  Gas Association and Spire Inc., are planning to request a 60 day extension to respond to the  Department of Energy’s  (DOE)  August 27th Federal Register notice of a proposed interpretive rule pertaining to performance-related features of certain appliances. Detailed information on this issue was provided in last weeks Update on End Use Codes and Standards.  The DOE Notice  requested comments by September 27th that is  believed to be too short of the amount of time to respond to  DOE. The rationale for the requested extension is that the  DOE notice   raises various factual, technical, economic, regulatory, and administrative issues that require a significant time to review and respond to in a meaningful manner to assist the  DOE in its decision-making process on this issue.  We will provide the DOE response for the request when it is available.
State Codes Activity Update.

Attached  is a weekly feature of the “Friday Update” covering state code calendar activities as presented by the online utility “Fiscal Note,” which is sponsored by APGA and AGA Code and Standards. Please review the update and determine if there are state code activities that impact your service territory or organization.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions on any of these items.