Outgoing Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is teaming up with Texas and 13 other states to fight the federal government’s “radical energy efficiency standards” that they say make affordable housing more expensive.
Filed Thursday in the U.S. Courts’ Eastern District of Texas, the attorneys general are suing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, arguing that a section of the Cranston-Gonzalez Act — a 1990 law designed to help families afford down payments on their homes and keep housing affordable — is unconstitutional.
The complaint takes issue with the Act’s “Energy Efficiency Standards” section, which imposes regulations when constructing new public housing and single-family and multifamily residential housing. The standards often dictate the types of lighting, ventilation systems, roofs and heat pumps used in construction.
Calling that provision “well-meaning,” Reyes and other attorneys general say the statute is “now being stretched to the breaking point to support a green agenda that Congress never enacted.”
According to the complaint, that section delegates efficiency standards to two private organizations, the International Code Council and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers. That should be unconstitutional, the lawsuit alleges.
The regulations set by the law add on an extra $8,345 to the cost of the new home, according to the federal government. But the lawsuit claims the real price is far higher, citing “estimates by industry professionals” that put an added cost of up to $31,000 for each new home.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, those up-front costs are a worthy investment — over a 30-year mortgage, a more efficient home can save the average single-family homeowner “an estimated $25,100 in energy bills, producing a net savings of an estimated $15,000 per household.”
The standards make homes more comfortable and resilient to heat waves or extreme cold, the department says. Plus, they can reduce carbon emissions by nearly 6.35 million metric tons over 30 years, the equivalent of taking 46,000 cars off the road.
According to court documents, more than 161,000 new single-family housing units, and more than 17,000 new multifamily housing units, are impacted by the policies each year.
“The agencies concede the new standards will drive down production of affordable housing at a time when middle-class families are finding homeownership out of reach and homelessness is at an all-time high,” Reyes’ office said in a news release.
The lawsuit marks one of Reyes’ final actions as Utah’s attorney general. Reyes did not run for reelection this year, making the announcement after his relationship with embattled anti-trafficking activist Tim Ballard came to light. On Jan. 6, he will be replaced by Derek Brown, a former U.S. Senate staffer, state lawmaker and Utah Republican Party chairman.
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“Even as our nation prepares to transition to a new administration, the outgoing HUD and USDA offices are committed to inflicting unwanted and unneeded cost increases on Americans who are already struggling to pay their bills, provide for their families, and secure a brighter future for their children,” said Reyes in a statement. “As one of my last actions as AG, I am grateful for another chance to lead this fight to protect hard-working Utahns and all Americans.”
In addition to deeming the Energy Efficiency Standards section of the Cranston-Gonzalez Act unconstitutional, the lawsuit asks the court to prevent the federal government from adopting new versions of regulations set by the International Code Council and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
Utah and Texas are joined by attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The National Association of Home Builders also signed on to the lawsuit.
“We have an affordability crisis in the home market,” said Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers. “These codes will only make things worse by inflating costs and decreasing production of needed housing. Nebraskans didn’t elect these groups to make these decisions, and they should not be allowed to push the dream of owning a home further out of reach.”
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