Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water . . . 4 Critical Roles of the DOE Energy Codes Program

The saying "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" warns against getting rid of something valuable while trying to get rid of something unwanted or wasteful.

This idiom was first published in the year 1512 and it has stood the test of time. Why? Because it is common sense.

We can all acknowledge the opportunity to bring greater efficiencies and cost cutting measures to certain federal agencies or programs, but we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are important functions and roles of government that promote efficiency and protect taxpayers.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Codes Program is an example of a governmental office that plays a critical role to reduce spending and energy waste, and to help make our homes and workplaces safer.

How? The office is small but mighty and, with the assistance of the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL), it is the only entity that can provide unbiased, third-party analysis that supports the development of building energy codes and bring expertise to state and local jurisdictions’ efforts to adopt and implement the latest version of the energy codes. Furthermore, DOE is statutorily required to provide assistance in these key areas:

1. Providing unbiased, objective analysis during the code development process. The building codes are updated every 3 years. During this process, DOE/PNNL provide analysis on energy savings on proposed new measures to help the committee make informed decisions.
2. Providing unbiased, objective energy savings determinations on newly published versions of the residential and commercial energy code. These determinations guide state and local adoption of the new code.
3. Providing state specific analysis to inform the state or local adoption process. They provide state specific analysis based on the most recently published codes to inform the state regarding the specific energy savings that can be realized, should it be adopted. DOE is also available to provide additional assistance at the request of the state as needed during their adoption process.
4. Convening open stakeholder discussions, conducting research, and developing tools and resources to support proper building energy code implementation.   This includes critical free tools like REScheck and COMcheck that are commonly used to demonstrate code compliance.

Without DOE, there would be voids in the process that would not be filled or worse, would be filled by special interests that would likely manipulate the process for their own financial gain to the detriment of American home and building owners.

To preserve home and business owner interests, we need DOE to continue to provide these services. Home and business owners benefit from improved building energy codes through the impact the codes have on lowering their energy consumption and therefore lowering their utility bills. It also helps to ensure that our national grid is more reliable. Our grid has also been under more and more strain and if we don’t lower the demand from our buildings, we are likely to experience even more outages and the need to build more power plants that will cost us all more money.

As these outages occur, whether from grid constraints or due to the extreme weather we have been experiencing across the country, it is vital that our buildings are well insulated and resilient. Under-insulated buildings that lose power can quickly endanger the health and even lives of vulnerable population groups like the elderly, the young, and the health compromised. This occurs when power is lost, and buildings are unable to maintain safe indoor temperatures when it is extremely cold or hot outside.

Reducing our energy demand will also help our nation become energy dominant and independent. We need to use our energy wisely, regardless of how it is generated (gas, coal, oil, hydro, nuclear, solar, etc.). Then, we can not only become energy dominant, but we will also have enough energy to become manufacturing and AI dominant.

The DOE Energy Codes Program is not fat to be trimmed, or a baby that can be tossed out with the bathwater. It is a critical program for us all!