Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

As Virginia tries to become more energy efficient, building codes come under the microscope

Virginia Mercury: It’s almost a ritual: As the days shorten and the drafts begin to sweep beneath the door or weasel around the window frame, the echo of a grumpy parental voice can be heard: “We aren’t paying to heat the neighborhood.”

Variations of that experience play out across the U.S. every year. But if you thought the only people involved in the effort to keep the energy they’ve bought stay inside the walls they inhabit — from replacing windows to adding insulation — were individual families, you’d be wrong. Policymakers too hold significant sway over how airtight your house might be. And as concern about climate change increases Americans’ interest in reducing energy use, how strict building codes should be when it comes to energy is likely to become an ever more pressing issue.

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