The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has called out the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for creating regulations that have negatively impacted efforts to address the production of affordable housing.
In testimony delivered today before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, NAHB Chairman Alicia Huey, a custom home builder and developer from Birmingham, Alabama, stated that residential construction was already among the most heavily regulated industries without DOE’s oversight.
“Government policies and regulations are making it harder and harder for home builders and multifamily developers to build housing that is affordable,” said Huey.
Huey pointed out that DOE was exacerbating the work of builders try to create affordable housing by demanding regulations that she considered excessive. She cited a DOE proposal that would require manufacturers to retool their operations to produce new transformers, noting that the current transformer manufacturing was already burdened with an 18-to-24-month backlog.
“Therefore, NAHB supports H.R. 4167, the Protecting America’s Distribution Transformer Supply Chain Act,” said Huey. “The legislation would prohibit the Secretary of Energy from changing energy conservation standards for distribution transformers for a period five years, which will allow time for the market to stabilize so that manufacturers can catch up with demand.”
Huey also criticized DOE’s proposed Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Conventional Cooking Products rule, which would ban the sale of most current gas cooktop models sold across the country, stating this would result in appliance production delays and higher costs for consumers. She also called out the Inflation Reduction Act for including $1 billion in grants to state and local governments to adopt updated energy codes including the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), which she said would increase home prices by as much as $31,000.
“If we want to make a difference on energy efficiency, we must focus on existing housing, particularly older homes built before the introduction of modern energy codes,” said Huey.
Huey called for a “coordinated and concerted effort all levels of government” to address the lack of affordable housing.
“Let’s begin by fixing the broken regulatory process,” she said. “Congress should pass legislation such as H.R. 358, the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvement Act, to ensure that all regulations are designed with small businesses in mind, that regulatory rulemaking agencies are required to consider the true cost of regulations on small businesses, and that regulatory rulemaking agencies comply with the letter and intent of the law in crafting new regulations.”
Photo courtesy of NAHB
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Amen! My husband is a small builder who is building energy efficient homes. The cost of construction has more than doubled in 7 years. No builder is able to address “affordable” housing in our area of the Texas Hill Country. Supply delays and labor shortages have significantly changed how builders do business; it has virtually eliminated the competitive arena that once kept costs in line. Now if materials are available and contractors can meet the schedule, the builder has no choice but to move forward with what he can get.
The government agencies should TALK to each other, and include those who are in the trenches to solve the problems!