The Gazette editorial board | Denver Gazette
Colorado’s governor and Legislature may claim they want more affordable housing — but they aren’t about to let it stand in the way of their headlong rush toward green energy. Their zero-emissions-at-any-cost dogma seems to trump all other policy priorities.
Which helps explain why the state’s Energy Code Board is poised to impose extreme energy standards — even more stringent than those already in effect — on new home construction. The pending rules would turn the screws on wide-ranging aspects of the building code — and are projected to add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home in Colorado.
That’s right — it’ll add $25,000 to $35,000, by one estimate, in what is already the most expensive state for housing that is not located on one of the nation’s two coasts.
In proceedings starting today, the board, created by 2022 legislation, is scheduled to review and vote on what advocates are calling a “high-ambition code” that would replace home-construction energy standards adopted less than two years ago. The agenda is being driven by Gov. Jared Polis’ Colorado Energy Office and is part of the governor’s much-ballyhooed “Roadmap to 100% Renewable Energy by 2040.”
The changes not only would ratchet up the cost of housing but also stand to make new homes less convenient and less comfortable. As reported by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce’s news service, The Sum & Substance, home builders who are sounding the alarm on the new standards contend the new code’s assorted provisions essentially force them to omit efficient, clean-burning natural gas appliances in favor of all-electric appliances.
That means electric stoves, which many homeowners don’t want, and, more problematic, electric heat pumps — which simply don’t get the job done heating a home in a four-seasons climate like Colorado’s. Heat pumps also cost more to install.
Altogether, the changes add layer upon layer of cost to achieve the purported goal of zero-emission energy for new homes.
“Raising the cost of new construction housing for marginal gain in efficiency, especially during a housing affordability crisis, makes zero sense unless we truly don’t care about the attainability of home ownership,” Colorado Association of Home Builders CEO Ted Leighty told The Sum & Substance.
It raises the same question we’ve raised here before about the pursuit of zero-emission energy: Why the rush?