Commerce has filed proposed rules for Washington state’s Clean Buildings Law
Commerce’s Energy division will hold a public hearing regarding the proposed rules on Sept. 22
OLYMPIA, WA – The Washington State Department of Commerce announced today that proposed energy performance standards for buildings in Washington state have been published by the State Register. Commerce will host a public hearing for the new proposed rules online on Sept. 22. The proposed rules and hearing details can be found on the Clean Buildings webpage.
The standards will apply to large non-residential buildings greater than 50,000 square feet in floor area. They address energy use intensity targets by building type and methods of conditional compliance including:
- Energy management plan.
- Operations and maintenance program.
- Energy efficiency audits.
- Investment in energy efficiency measures designed to meet the targets.
On May 7, 2019, the Clean Buildings bill (HB 1257, 2019) was signed into law. The objective of the law is to lower costs and pollution from fossil fuel consumption in the state’s large commercial buildings. The law required Commerce to develop and implement an energy performance standard for these buildings and provide incentives to encourage early adoption. Large multi-family residential buildings will be eligible for the incentive program but are not covered by the mandatory requirements. Rules around the incentive program were not included as part of these proposed rules.
To complete this work, Commerce held 15 rulemaking workshops in which the public was invited to comment. To review rulemaking workshop materials and find out more about the Clean Buildings rulemaking, visit the Clean Buildings webpage.