华盛顿州的能源代码可承受法律挑战

联邦地区法院法官清除本周华盛顿州的道路向前迈进了新房的建筑能源规范，这些家庭将拯救业主在其能源票据上拯救出业主，同时同时减少电厂的有害空气污染。法官裁定华盛顿州的国家有权继续进行强大的新能源代码，这提高了能源效率，拒绝了守则法律法律法律的行业挑战。

这一决定为其他国家提供了较强的建筑能源效率守则，可以为其居民提供相同的利益，帮助建立美国的清洁能源未来。该决定将劝阻行业团体未来的努力，以挑战国家能源代码，以便他们无法阻止全国房主的类似节省。

在他最近的联盟地址状态下，奥巴马总统庆祝清洁能源在帮助美国赢得未来的作用announced a bold vision for the federal government in moving forward with clean energy solutions. The president’s commitment to clean energy is inspiring. But the states can also play an important role in winning the clean energy future.

2009年，在加利福尼亚州和纽约这样的国家的传统之后，华盛顿州已经采用了居民建筑的新能源效率规范，需要减少新房的能耗减少15％。但华盛顿没有授权满足这一要求的任何特定方法。相反，它允许建设者以多种方式遵守。其中一些选项允许，但不需要，使用高效加热和冷却设备。

提供建筑商的方法许多选择和途径满足能源效率目标是简单的常识。但华盛顿州building trade association冲进联邦地区法院去年,魅力llenging the new code as preempted by the federal Energy Policy Conservation Act, the law which establishes national energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial products such as furnaces. This challenge came from an industry playbook that has been tried before: Another trade association挑战了阿尔伯克基市采用的建筑能源代码，n.m.，并成功地部分阻止了该法律。

NRDC决心不让这发生这种情况。我们赶到法院来捍卫华盛顿建筑能源代码，与华盛顿州律师王国议员办公室的优秀律师密切合作Earthjustice华盛顿办事处，以及国家能源和环境团体。我们一起安装了全面捍卫新代码，不包含联邦法律的语言，历史和意图。

我们解释说，联邦法律实际上鼓励各国采用更有效的建筑规范，国会明确允许各国采用能源代码采用包括合规性途径的能源代码，只要不需要这些选项并且还有其他选择that don’t involve use of this equipment. Through evidence provided by nationally recognized building energy experts and Washington builders who understand that energy efficiency increases the value of homes, we argued that the state code is consistent with federal law.

法官在周一（2月7日）统治了我们的青睐。他抛出了贸易协会对所有罪名的挑战，发现华盛顿建设能源代码符合联邦法律的要求。In legalese, the court found that the trade association had failed to show either “that the Washington Code requires use of products with higher efficiency than mandated by federal standards as the only way to comply with the Code" or that the code " 'functionally’ or ‘effectively’ requires use of products that exceed federal efficiency standards.' " And in plain language, that’s good news for Washington homeowners’ pockets and for all state residents who like breathing cleaner air.

Moving forward, NRDC is committed to continuing to assist and support states and municipalities who want to use their local power to adopt and implement strong energy efficiency codes. Under the 2008 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, each state that accepted federal stimulus funds has pledged to adopt a stronger building energy code.http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/lburt/is_your_governor_keeping_hishe.html

由于周一的决定，在这一承诺中遵循的每个国家都应该知道，如果他们推动建筑物更有效，那么法律就会在他们身边。NRDC和我们的盟友将支持各国的努力，以削减能源成本，遏制污染和建立美国的清洁能源未来。

本文最初出现在NRDC上交换机博客并通过许可转载。