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| Ultimate Home Design News | ||||
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February 22, 2010
EPA Green House Gas Finding Draws Opposition NAHB joined a coalition of business and industry groups last week to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's endangerment finding for green house gas emissions. The association is part of the lawsuit to ensure that the federal government does not regulate greenhouse gases using statutes that Congress enacted long before climate change became a global concern, said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a Michigan home builder. “The EPA’s endangerment finding on greenhouse gases only exacerbates a very real problem,” Jones said, because it will result in a near paralysis of permitting authorities. “The Clean Air Act and other existing environmental statutes are ill-equipped to address global climate change. Expanding an expensive, cumbersome federal permitting process does little to reduce greenhouse gases — but it can and will cost jobs,” Jones said. While many home builders and developers are not yet directly affected by the endangerment finding, many of their suppliers will be — resulting in higher costs for raw materials and products from manufacturers subject to more stringent regulation. For that reason, NAHB joined the National Association of Manufacturers, American Petroleum Institute and other trade associations to challenge the finding. Other groups also scrambled to meet the Feb. 16 deadline to challenge the finding, including some that question the veracity of climate change — a position that NAHB and the coalition does not share. Alabama, Virginia and Texas also filed petitions, citing the regulatory burden on states. “The EPA itself has acknowledged that regulating green house gases through the Clean Air Act is going to lead to burdensome and wholly unworkable permitting requirements. It hasn’t the manpower or the budget to deal with the outcome, and neither do the states that will have to implement these regulations,” Jones said. A better approach, Jones suggested, would be to provide incentives for green building and energy efficiency efforts. “Our members will continue to retrofit older, inefficient homes, which are the biggest source of carbon emissions in the residential sector,” he said. “Home builders and remodelers will be able to ramp up this work — and strengthen employment throughout the residential building sector — when the banking and appraisal industries recognize green and energy-efficient features in their valuations and when creative financing options are available to further incentivize home owners to make those improvements,” he added. For more information, e-mail Calli Schmidt at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8132. |
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