City balks at new energy conservation rules until its sees more information

An update to the city's energy conservation code was cause for debate at Tuesday's city council meeting. Troubled by an incomplete understanding of its requirements, the body looked for more information—and time—before making a decision.

Sidney's Chief Building Inspector, Brad Rowan, introduced Ordinance 1700, adopting the 2012 edition of the International Energy Conservation Code. This code would regulate and govern energy efficient building practices and the installation of energy efficient mechanical lighting in the City of Sidney and in the unincorporated area two miles around the city. The code contains many additional energy efficiency measures as well.

"We're basically just updating the energy code for the city," Rowan said.

City councilman Mark Nienhueser asked if there was a way that the council could take a look at the entire code before deciding whether or not to pass it. Rowan admitted that the energy conservation code was a sizable book full of complicated regulations, but he explained some of the measures therein.

"It takes out the incandescent light bulbs and puts the CFLs in there," Rowan said. "And just different insulation factors. In some cases it keeps the city the same as we had before and in some places it makes it a little more restrictive."

CFL stands for compact florescent light. These lights use much less energy than traditional florescent lights. Rowan explained that many of the measures in the code are standard in the majority of construction jobs at the moment, anyway.

"Incandescent light bulbs are a thing of the past now," Rowan said. "You can barely even buy them at the store. It's going to CFLs."

The code also specifies the need for motion sensors in bathrooms, to save on lighting costs. Rowan explained that there are many regulations but he wasn't able to go into all of them at the meeting because it would take too long.

"I haven't seen it, and what I'm concerned is, I've seen some codes in other states that have ratcheted these energy codes to a point where its very difficult to build a facility and if you can, you're gonna drive your project costs up extensively, because you're chasing dollars to meet a code that is not quite balanced,” Nienhueser said. "And I'm questioning myself, without knowing the details of that, can I say yes to something that's gonna lay a burden?"

Some of the other council members were concerned about accepting the code, in case it was too restrictive, without reading it as well.

"I wouldn't let that happen," Rowan said. "I can meet the intent of the code and if it is a burden, then I'll bring it back to the council."

The new code doesn't include any drastic restrictions and shouldn't hurt builders financially, Rowan assured.

"If I have issues with it or a builder has issues with it, I'll revert back to the council and probably tweak it a little bit at that time," Rowan explained. "Right now, I can't see anything, reading it and everything, that I think is gonna be a burden upon consumers or the citizens to build."

Nienhueser wondered what new restrictions home builders would be forced to deal with after this code is put in place.

"I'm just tweaking the code and upgrading it to new standards," Rowan said.

At this point, most new buildings are already energy efficient, he continued. Rowan speaks with the potential homeowner or builder and informs them of potential ways to make their new home more efficient such as sealing up air leaks. Most of the regulations in the code are standard on new buildings at this point, they just weren't in Sidney's ordinance, which was last updated in 2006.

"When the contractor comes in or the homeowner comes in, we discuss it," Rowan said. "On my authority as building official I can waive certain parts of it as long as it meets the intent of the code. It gives me a little more leeway on how I can interpret the code."

Rowan will have the option to make adjustments to the regulations if he needs to.

"It gives you some teeth," Rowan said. "You've got to do it, based on this."

Sidney City Attorney J. Leef informed the council that there is a copy of the international code kept with the city clerk if any council members wished to view it.

"I'd like to know what the majority of the revisions are from our existing code to what's being presented now," said councilman Roger Gallaway. "Not necessarily everything, but at least the major gist of the changes."

The new code puts more value on insulation, specifically foundation insulation and goes into depth on the necessary density of woods used, Rowan said.

Sidney Mayor, Wendall Gaston reminded the council that passing this energy code wasn't a time sensitive matter.

"We don't need to start this yet," Gaston said. "We can start it any time, if you guys wanna look at it."

Rowan said he has ordered the commentary explaining the code and should have it sometime this week.

"I applaud you bringing the conversation forward," Nienhueser said. "But I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous on this, to know there's challenges with it, so I guess I'd feel like I'm not doing my job if we don't look at the details on this."

The council discussed summarizing the commentary so the councilmen and the public could read and understand it more easily.

"We can certainly look at those notes and see if we can come up with a cliff notes version," Leef said.

The council agreed to table the matter until it could obtain more information about the new code and compare it to the old one.