State ignores law in not revising energy conservation standards
The Cap Times, September 28, 2014To Keith Reopelle, Wisconsin’s failure to revise its rules for new buildings to incorporate the latest advances in energy conservation is a huge mistake.
“People building new buildings are missing the benefits of efficiency improvements that the rest of the country is taking advantage of,” said Reopelle, who heads the nonprofit environmental group Clean Wisconsin. “We’ve stopped improving our buildings in terms of health and safety and efficiency.”
According to a U.S. Department of Energy website, Wisconsin’s energy conservation standards for new building construction are equivalent to 2009 international standards, which the state did not enact until September 2011. It has not yet enacted updated standards promulgated for 2012.