Homebuilders are fighting green building. Homeowners will pay

More important for the rest of us, all those efficient new houses in Alternate Universe North Carolina would have prevented 130,700 metric tons of carbon emissions in the first year of operation alone, matching the output of 29,000 gas-burning cars. They would have created more than 60,000 jobs in 30 years. And lower energy bills would have saved North Carolina homeowners $5.3 billion over 30 years. Extend that to every state, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Overriding the preferences of architects, building inspectors, HVAC engineers, environmental groups and more, Wisconsin’s Republican-run legislature also rejected the new codes last year. The state’s building codes are essentially frozen in 2012. “We now are looking at codes becoming so antiquated that modern materials aren’t even in the book,” one building inspector told the Wisconsin Examiner.

When it comes to energy efficiency, the situation is even worse. The U.S. Department of Energy ranks each state by the “code equivalent” rating of their efficiency standards. Wisconsin and North Carolina are among 24 states with standards basically locked in 2009 or earlier. Eight states have no standards at all. One is Colorado, where homebuilders are, you guessed it, lobbying against a bill to adopt stricter codes.

This isn’t the only way builders are risking a miserable future for their customers. They’re also trying to persuade Arizona to end a decades-old requirement that new subdivisions must prove they’ll have water for 100 years. The rule has helped Arizona’s population boom without overly taxing groundwater resources. To homebuilders, it’s just an annoying obstacle to building more houses.

The situation isn’t hopeless. One chief hurdle to changing codes is simply inertia: Overhauling operations can be time-consuming and expensive for builders and contractors. Policymakers can grease the skids, and make the transition more fair, with financial assistance, suggests Joe O’Brien-Applegate, a building-decarbonization expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit advocacy group.

The federal government can use the lure of Inflation Reduction Act money to encourage states to adopt stricter standards. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed requiring mortgages it helps finance comply with 2021 codes. Regulators and local officials have tools beyond the building code to encourage building efficiency, including taxes on energy use.

The good news is that builders haven’t widely squashed the new codes just yet. Several builders actually favor stricter codes. “Efficient, resilient buildings and low bills are what homeowners want,” said Grab of the RMI. “Ultimately all builders will have to go in that direction.”

There’s still time to generate public support for common-sense standards that will help both the climate and homeowners’ finances — but maybe not much time. The gas-stove wars are an example of how quickly industry lobbyists can move. Cities had only just begun to ban gas hookups in new buildings when 20 states quickly passed laws prohibiting such bans. Proponents of change need to be just as nimble.