The Biden administration announced Wednesday $90 million in funding to push local governments to develop stricter construction codes in line with the White House’s climate agenda.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will issue the grants — as first reported by The Washington Post — supporting 27 separate projects nationwide, the largest of which is a $9.6 million payout to the D.C.-based nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, which plans to develop new energy codes with local governments. The Biden administration estimates that stricter building codes will save Americans $138 billion on utilities over the next 30 years, while making U.S. communities better able to withstand extreme weather events, according to a DOE press release. (RELATED: Biden Admin To Spend Nearly $1,000,000,0000 On Green Upgrades For Fed Buildings)
“If the building codes are not appropriate, then the way people build — and what they build — actually produces a bad result when a bad thing happens,” said Biden’s infrastructure implementation adviser, Mitch Landrieu, in a statement to the Post Tuesday. “That can be water, it can be floods, it can be fire, it can be whatever.”
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 05: U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm testifies before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee May 5, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The grant funding will focus on providing “education and training opportunities” for “industry practitioners” to “keep pace with the latest technologies and construction practices,” according to the DOE. The Biden administration lacks the authority to impose national building codes — which are typically the domains of states and other localities — but by funding these education opportunities, is hoping to entice local governments into action, according to the Post.
“We’re not going to mandate it,” White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi told the Post. “But by getting the data out there, getting the tools out there [and] by being a partner at the federal level, then you have all of these state and local actors fall in the right direction.”
The DOE referred a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment to its press release announcing the grant awards.
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