Updated codes could net more cash

According to a Baltimore Business Journal story, State regulators plan to beef up their enforcement of energy-efficient building codes in Maryland, and they’ve got a good reason for doing so: $52 million.

That’s how much Maryland is getting in federal stimulus funds under a U.S. Dept. of Energy grant program, but the state risks losing some of that money unless it gets vigilant about holding developers’ feet to the fire when it comes to constructing new buildings.

"It puts it out in the front, it says the energy code is important, we need to be following it," said Ed Landon, director of the Maryland Codes Administration. The administration, part of the state Dept. of Housing and Community Development, is charged with overseeing statewide building codes. Before recessing, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law requiring the department to incorporate the International Energy Conservation Code into the state’s own building codes. Adopting the energy code, and enforcing it, is a provision tied to the state getting stimulus money from the federal energy department’s State Energy Program.

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