NAHB Energy Committee Dismantled

In a move that would appear to reinforce the National Association of Home Builders’ anti-environmental policies, the Association’s Committee on Energy was voted out of existence at the January 29 Board of Directors’ meeting. Ironically, the decision was made just a day after the First Annual Energy Value Housing Awards were presented, with the NAHB’s Energy Committee as a co-sponsor. The Committee was fighting for its survival ever since it chose to support the energy efficiency standards of the Model Energy Code (MEC) in 1991, according to sources involved in the decision.

NAHB members from Ohio and New Jersey were particularly displeased with that position, arguing that meeting MEC standards would price their homes out of the first-time homebuyer’s market. The January 29 Board decision abolishes the energy committee and confers jurisdiction for energy matters to the far-reaching Construction and Codes Committee. In a parallel change that took place on January 1, the staff department entitled “Energy and Home Environment” was subsumed by the Technology and Codes Department.

Ron Burton, assistant staff vice president for construction, codes and standards at NAHB, downplays the significance of the change. “Nothing’s really changed. It’s just a formal recognition of what we’ve been doing for a long time,” he argues. Burton explains that energy matters will continue to be addressed by a subcommittee under the Construction and Codes Committee. Many former committee members disagree, however. Texas builder Barbara Harwood argued on the Board floor against the change. “It looks bad to the outside world if NAHB isn’t actively addressing energy matters,” she says, adding that without the Energy Committee the NAHB is out of step with the general public’s concerns about the environment. “It should be a function of NAHB to lead its members into the future, where energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important to buyers, both because of environmental issues and costs,” Harwood says.