What Will Happen to Your Next Home if Builders Get Their Way?

An article in the New York Times today highlights the building industry's efforts to influence building codes, which are typically adopted by states and local governments every three years, often relying on influential models set by the International Code Council. These building codes protect homeowners from sustaining damage in extreme weather events, and reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.

The National Association of Home Builders, a trade organization representing the building industry, is engaged in lobbying to weaken new building codes as a way to cut builders' costs in the short-term, even though higher building codes are the public interest and cost less in the long-term.  

"If the group succeeds, the nation could be saddled with millions of houses, stores and offices that waste too much energy and cost people too much money to heat and cool. Weakened construction standards could also leave houses and other buildings more vulnerable to the intensifying climate crisis, from floods to fires to storms. And they will make that crisis worse by pouring excessive greenhouse gases into the atmosphere," according to the article.

What Will Happen to Your Next Home if Builders Get Their Way?, New York Times