May 26, 2017

Mr. John Ainslie, Chairman
Board of Housing and Community Development
Main Street Centre
600 East Main Street, Suite 300
Richmond, VA 23219

Dear Mr. John Ainslie:

We, the undersigned members of the Governor’s Executive Committee on Energy Efficiency (GEC) and the Virginia Energy Efficiency Roadmap Team support increased energy efficiency in Virginia’s Uniform Statewide Building Code (USBC). As staff to the GEC and managing partner of the Roadmap Team, the Division of Energy, Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy is aware that there are several proposals before the Board of Housing and Community Development (the Board) that would strengthen energy efficiency standards for commercial and residential buildings throughout Virginia. Energy efficiency provides many benefits, including savings for homeowners, recoverable costs for homebuilders, new jobs throughout the Commonwealth, improved building comfort, and reduced environmental impacts.

The GEC was created by Governor McAuliffe in May 2015 and is tasked with developing strategies and recommendations to achieve Virginia’s goal of a 10 percent reduction in retail electricity consumption in the Commonwealth by 2020. The GEC is comprised of public and private sector stakeholders including representatives of utilities, financial institutions, universities, energy efficiency service providers, environmental organizations and consumer advocates.

The Virginia Energy Efficiency Roadmap Team is a group of public and private energy efficiency stakeholders and subject matter experts that received a grant award from the U.S. Department of Energy in January 2016 to support the work of the GEC by developing recommendations to achieve the Commonwealth’s 10 percent electricity conservation goal.

Based on projections by the Division of Energy, the adoption of the provisions of 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) without amendments in the USBC could represent 1.4 million megawatt hours of avoided energy consumption, which represents 13.6 percent of the state’s energy conservation goal. These avoided megawatt hours would provide the largest single contribution to the 10 percent goal to date.

The signers of this letter compiled by the Division of Energy view the adoption of the standard energy efficiency measures in the USBC as a cost-effective and practical approach to avoiding energy generation, saving money, and creating economic opportunities in Virginia. We encourage the Board to consider each proposal carefully with the perspective that updates made in the USBC during this code cycle can play a very significant role in our progress towards achieving Virginia’s electric energy conservation goal.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Adams
Member, GEC
Pearl Home Certification

Will C. Cleveland
Member, GEC
Southern Environmental Law Center

William R. Prindle
Member, GEC
Local Energy Alliance Program

Dana Wiggins
Member, GEC
Virginia Poverty Law Center

Cyrus Bhedwar
Member, Roadmap Team
Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance

Kyra Hoskins
Member, Roadmap Team
Clean Energy Solutions, Inc.

Maggie Molina
Member, Roadmap Team
American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy