Earlier this week, the Lewis County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) sent a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee asking for a change in House Bill 1257, also known as the Clean Buildings Act of 2019, calling it “bad legislation that needs to be repealed or revised.”
According to a news release from the county, the act creates energy use standards for public and private buildings larger than 20,000 square feet in size and imposes penalties for owners not in compliance beginning in 2026. The release stated this would add more than $7.5 million to the budget for a project the county currently has in motion to install energy efficiencies with the goal of saving money.
“As you can see, the Clean Buildings Act puts a tremendous burden on local governments, citizens and businesses. Our numbers are just a sample of what the total impact will be statewide. Since this act covers both public and private building owners, the cost to comply will be in the billions,” the BOCC wrote in the letter.
The commissioners also told Inslee there are grant incentives available for the costs they will tally from the act, but that even if the county wins each of the grants, the earnings will not exceed $2 million.
To learn more about the Clean Buildings Act, visit https://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=194-50&full=true.
