Bill would alter how Pa. adopts building codes

What do sprinkler systems and energy efficiency have to do with each other?

Not much. Which is why environmental activists and other green advocates weren't paying attention to a bill that had been progressing through the Pennsylvania legislature since March. Its aim: to repeal a mandate, effective Jan. 1, that sprinkler systems be installed in new houses.

Then came an amendment to the sprinkler measure in early April that not only got their attention but that now has enraged energy-conservation groups, which predict a virtually impossible road ahead for enhancements to the state's energy-efficiency building requirements.

"This is definitely a roadblock," a dumbfounded Janet Milkman, executive director of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council, said last week after the House and Senate approved the amended bill. It is headed to Gov. Corbett for his expected signature.

The legislation, House Bill 377, would change the process by which building codes are adopted in Pennsylvania. Specifically, it would require a two-thirds, or supermajority, vote by the 19-member Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council.

Better known as the RAC, the group consists of contractors, engineers, architects, building inspectors, code, and other local officials appointed by the governor. It makes recommendations on changes to the Pennsylvania Construction Code Act or on changes that appear in the International Codes, the primary model for state building standards.

Energy-conservation lobbyists - and some legislators - contend that blocking more stringent green-building requirements was the goal of the 7,000-member Pennsylvania Builders Association in pushing for passage of the building-code change.

"This was clearly a special-interest piece of legislation," State Sen. Charles McIlhinney Jr. (R., Bucks/Montgomery) said in an interview Thursday.

"Why don't we just let the home builders association decide [state building policy]?" he added wryly.

McIlhinney cast one of 17 votes against the measure in the Senate, where it passed with 33 "yes" votes. The bill was approved, 129-68, in the state House.

David Masur, director of PennEnvironment, a nonprofit advocacy group, said the real losers are Pennsylvania's homeowners and tenants.

"With the current economy, people paying more on utility bills in a deregulated world with price caps coming off . . . it's sort of a hard time to be paying out of your pocketbook [for energy-related] stuff," Masur said.