Author John Abrams said, quite correctly, “If the people who make the decisions are the people who will also bear the consequences of those decisions, perhaps better decisions will result.”
But, when the decisions are being made by our governmental leaders, consequences too often are the last thing on their minds.
Our legislators love to pass regulations they exempt themselves from, so the consequences of their decisions on the electorate are not given a great deal of thought.
On March 23, area home builders met to discuss the unintended consequences of building regulations and vented about energy efficiency and lead paint.
But, are the arguments the building contractors make valid?
The Illinois Energy Conservation Code was amended in August to include residential buildings and went into effect Jan. 29.
The Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity said, “The law requires all new commercial and residential construction for which a building permit application is received by a municipality or county to follow a comprehensive statewide energy conservation code. Renovations, alterations, additions and repairs to most existing commercial and residential buildings must follow the Illinois Energy Conservation Code.”
Boiled down, this means added costs to any project. But, these days, what does not lead to added costs?
Another new regulation, which will go into effect April 22, involves the testing of lead paint on residential homes built before 1978. It is a different regulation, but the same result — added costs.
“This will affect a lot of people,” Brent Hoerr, of Don Hoerr & Sons Inc. in North Peoria, said. Phil Zobrist, of Don Hoerr & Sons, added, “We’re concerned — just what it’s going to do to cost.”
Hoerr said the new lead paint regulation will apply to remodeling jobs as small as replacing a window, or anything else that could possibly contain lead paint. “This is going to add a large amount of labor cost to even small jobs,” Hoerr said. There is no doubt Hoerr and Zobrist are correct.
Energy conservation is something we all need to practice. We have limited energy resources. The time is now to conserve those resources.
But, Terry Ruhland, owner of Plum Creek Builders in Chillicothe, made a good point.
“It’s unprecedented in the fact that most of it’s handed down from the federal government. The energy conservation code was handed down from the federal government to the state as a prerequisite to qualify for stimulus dollars. They said any state that doesn’t have the energy conservation code won’t get any money, so they kind of held us over the barrel to do that,” Ruhland said.
