Advocates Appeal New Mexico Code Rollback in Court
On June 10, the Construction Industries Commission repealed the 2009 New Mexico Energy Conservation Code (NMECC) and other construction codes the Commission adopted in 2010 after months of work by the Construction Industries Division (CID) to develop them.
CIC had originally adopted a 2009 NMECC version containing strengthening amendments to the 2009 IECC that achieved greater energy savings, roughly 20% beyond the 2006 IECC. In early 2011, the NMECC was subject to administrative rollback attempts and an ultimately successful advocate legal challenge. The state spent several months conducting activities to implement the advanced code beginning July 1, including training in 14 cities and providing free codebooks through PNNL and ICC.
On April 22, the Commission gave initial approval to proposed changes to the NMECC that would revert the code back to the base 2009 IECC code. CID held public comment hearings around the state on June 2 and gave final approval to the code rollback on June 10. The previous version of the NMECC – based on the 2006 IECC – will be effective until the revised version set at the 2009 IECC baseline takes effect in February 2012.
On July 11, SWEEP and other parties filed an appeal asking the New Mexico Court of Appeals to reverse the Commission’s June 10 decision to repeal the advanced 2009 NMECC and other construction codes.
More Information: SWEEP Press Release | CID | 2009 NMECC News Archive
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