BECS Committee Submits 14 Proposals to the 2027 Edition of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

This week, AGA filed 14 proposals (attached) to the 2027 Edition of the IECC. Each proposal is intended to address existing provisions in the 2024 IECC that unfairly restrict or negatively impact the direct use of natural gas in homes and businesses in violation of the Scope and Intent of the IECC or add new coverage for renewable natural gas and new and emerging gas technologies like natural gas heat pumps. There is a reason listed for each proposal. For those that restrict or penalize using natural gas, the proposals will bring the section into compliance with the Scope and Intent of the IECC which states that the code “is not intended to eliminate any fuel type.”  Recall that the ICC Board Commentary issued in October goes on to state that the IECC must “remain neutral to fuel source and do not promote or penalize specific types of equipment or fuel sources.”  The struck language from the 2024 code listed in a number of the attached proposals clearly violate this intent. Additionally, a number of the proposals point out that they have provisions that only add cost and do not save any energy in and of themselves.  Therefore, they are not cost-effective, and clearly penalizes the use of natural gas in favor of electricity. Other proposals such as the recommendation to add renewable natural gas (RNG) and new gas technologies also assist in making the IECC fuel neutral.  All public proposals submitted will now be evaluated by the IECC Residential or Commercial Consensus Committees who will make recommendations to approve, approve as modified or reject and their recommendations will be published for additional public comment as outlined in the IECC code development process.  A special thank you to the BECS Committee members and Task Group who lead development of the final proposals.

ICC Announces the Membership of the IECC Residential or Commercial Consensus Committees.

Also, this week, the ICC Board of Directors announced the membership of the IECC Residential or Commercial Consensus Committees. The rosters for both committees are posted on the IECC Code Development landing page at this link .  The Commercial Committee will have 39 members and will be chaired by Duane Jonlin from the City of Seattle, Washington. The Residential Committee will seat 36 members and be chaired by Shane Hoeper from the City of Dubuque, Iowa. AGA will be represented by Eric Tate from Atmos Energy as the primary voting member on the Residential Committee with AGA consultant Gary Heikkinen is Eric’s  Alternate. Kevin Duell from Northwest Natural has been appointed as the Primary voting member on the Commercial Consensus Committee with Ian Casey, also with Northwest Natural as his Alternate.

Additional Information on the Schedule for the Development 2027 IECC.

The ICC provided the following information on the 2027 IECC development schedule:

For this cycle, all meetings of the IECC consensus committees will be held virtually.  The first public meeting for the IECC Residential Consensus Committee is this Tuesday, December 17th, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.  The agenda for the meeting is attached and the connection information is provided below.

https://iccsafe.webex.com/iccsafe/j.php?MTID=m019a9e1092510bff8499be23cff1ac82

The first public meeting for the IECC Commercial Consensus Committee is this Wednesday, December 18th, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.  The agenda for the meeting is attached and the connection information is provided below.

https://iccsafe.webex.com/iccsafe/j.php?MTID=m5d30ee224661c8199a59f7c079b982ab

Applications for Serving on Various Subcommittees Opens on December 20 till January 3 – BECS Committee Members Encouraged to Apply.

Note that there is a procedure to file applications for “interested parties to serve as voting members on the various subcommittees” in support of the 2027 Residential and Commercial IECC. It is very important that as this process begins that BECS Committee members consider filing an application to be appointed on one of these appropriate subcommittees also referenced as working groups,  because the subcommittee recommendations on code proposals are very influential on the main Consensus Committees decisions on code proposals. The natural gas industry needs to make a strong effort to populate the appropriate subcommittees to help ensure that our message of the benefits of the direct use of natural gas is clear and heard during the IECC code development process. BECS Committee members may also wish to encourage other individuals within their organization who have experience and expertise in energy areas such as the economics and technical aspects of energy efficiency and usage for the built environment, etc.  Additional information on the IECC subcommittees is attached.  Applications for interested parties to serve as voting members on the various IECC Residential and Commercial subcommittees will open on December 20th and close on January 3rd at 11:59 pm Pacific. Applications can also be found at the following link.

Thanks in advance for your help on this issue. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions on this request.

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.