Ruling OKs Energy Code Enforcement

By Richard Metcalf / Journal Staff Writer on Thu, Jun 6, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Albuquerque Journal
The state Court of Appeals has denied a motion to hold the state Construction Industries Division in contempt for continuing to enforce an energy code despite a ruling in April to “set aside” the code until pending resolution of legal issues.
“We conclude that there has been no flouting of the court’s ruling or authority in this relatively short time frame which requires the exercise by the court of its contempt power,” says the order filed late last week by the court.
In a related move, the Construction Industries Commission, the division’s rule-making body composed of gubernatorial appointees, took steps to preserve the legality of the existing code that included approval of a formal “Statement of Reasons” justifying its adoption.
“This code has been widely accepted and implemented by the construction industry, placing New Mexico well ahead of many other states in the areas of energy conservation and environmental stewardship,” the Regulation and Licensing Department, which includes CID, said in a statement to the Journal Thursday.
“The 2011 code provides a uniform and integrated set of building construction codes,” the statement says, adding that the standardized code avoids “substantial conflicts with building codes in other states and with other New Mexico building codes.”
The unsuccessful contempt motion was filed on behalf of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and nine other plaintiffs in a two-year-old lawsuit challenging the state’s adoption of a standardized energy code. The code includes specific energy conservation, plumbing, electrical and mechanical codes.
The court order says the contempt motion was “not inappropriate” but likely premature pending action by the CID to get a postponement of the effective date of the April “set-aside” ruling.
“Although we do not agree with the court’s decision to deny our motion for contempt, we do not propose to pursue the motion for contempt any further,” said Douglas Meiklejohn of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, lawyer for the plaintiffs, in an email to the Journal .
The Southwest Energy lawsuit seeks to force CID to drop the standardized codes in favor of enforcement of custom codes developed by a committee during Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration.
The so-called “Richardson codes” were replaced early in Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration before they went into effect. The standardized codes currently being enforced were developed by the Washington, D.C.-based International Code Council.
The CIC’s Statement of Reasons, finalized and signed earlier this week, was done in conjunction with the re-adoption of the standardized codes. Both steps were taken per appeals court instructions.
A study by the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project that estimated the energy cost savings for homes built with the Richardson codes is “seriously flawed and unscientific in its methodology,” the statement says. The Richardson codes themselves have “serious procedural flaws,” it says.
“Further, the commission finds the claim that the Richardson codes will create jobs and pump money into New Mexico’s economy to be false,” it says.
Prior to the original adoption, the commission received 930 letters in opposition to the standardized codes, of which 462 were form letters generated from the Sierra Club website, the statement says. Many of the form letters came from out-of-state residents, it says.
On the other side, the commission received 413 letters in support of the standardized codes, it says. Letters in support generally came from the construction industry and tended to be more specific or detailed in their support of standardized codes versus customized codes, it says.
“The commission found the correspondence and testimony urging adoption of the 2009 IECC (standardized codes) to be more persuasive than that urging retention of the Richardson codes,” the statement says.
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