Boulder

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Boulder

CAP GROUP WASTES NO TIME CONSIDERING REGULATION/MANDATES

Last November, Boulder voters approved a new Xcel Energy fee to fund city efforts to reduce green house gases and promote energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings. The Climate Action Plan (CAP), administered through Boulder's Environmental Affairs Office was sold as essentially and education and incentive based approach that would encourage and provide some funding to property owners to voluntarily improve the sustainability and efficiency of their buildings. Recently, the CAP Advisory Group has been discussing and evaluating potential regulations and mandates, including point of sale energy audits and retrofits for residential property. The so-called Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance (RECO), if adopted, would focus on regulating energy and water use in existing housing, owner-occupied and rental, requiring landlords and home owners to implement specific measures if their property does not meet minimum standards. The CAP program funding began just this past January and very little of the programs envisioned as educational and incentive based have been implemented, so no determination of their effectiveness can be made. It is curious that the CAP group and Environmental Affairs staff feel it necessary to look to creating an extensive regulatory bureaucracy even before they have fully developed and implemented the $800,000 a year program approved by voters. At the same time, the City Council is considering possible new limitations on pop-ups and scrape-offs next year, the very activity that brings the City’s aging housing stock up to code with significant sustainability and energy efficiency construction. 60% plus of Boulder's housing stock is 40 years old or older.