City Council Committee to Consider New Costly Regulations on Most Buildings - Hearing Tuesday - Make Your Opinion Known!
The Portland City Council’s Committee on Housing and Permitting will take public testimony on Tuesday, October 20th, at 2:00 p.m., on an ordinance that would require all commercial buildings over 20,000 square feet (except buildings predominantly used for industrial, manufacturing, parking, primary or secondary education, warehouse, or worship purposes) and residential buildings with more than four units (except condos) to reduce their carbon emissions by 20% every five years.
THIS COULD BE THE MOST COSTLY REGULATION THAT THE CITY HAS EVER IMPOSED!
How will building owners meet this requirement?
· Expensive replacement of natural gas appliances, water heaters, and HVAC systems.
· Expensive installations of solar systems.
· Expensive upgrades to insulation and windows.
We urge you in the strongest terms possible to provide testimony to the Housing & Permitting Committee to make them aware of the extreme costs of such a requirement.
Points to emphasize:
· The ordinance makes no consideration of measures already taken by property owners to reduce energy consumption and carbon emission. Regardless of whether a building is already certified as LEED Platinum, there must be a 20% reduction in carbon emissions every five years or there will be significant penalties imposed.
· The costs will fall heaviest on precisely the older, lower-rent housing that Portland's housing supply and affordability crisis can least afford to lose.
· Initial estimates indicate the ordinance could require up to five additional new City employees to implement, at a cost that has not yet been determined and for which no funding source has been identified. Absent new revenue, the City would need to reallocate from existing programs or establish a new fee.
· Where tenants hold a utility account directly, the building owner has no ability to elect an energy product with lower emissions on the tenant’s behalf. Despite this, the draft ordinance assigns the compliance obligation, and the associated penalty exposure, to the owner.
· Interestingly, public buildings would be exempt from the ordinance’s requirements. If the City of Portland is so intent on reducing energy use and carbon emissions, shouldn’t it focus first on the City’s own extensive portfolio of buildings?
· Just by giving serious consideration to such a requirement, let alone adopting it, not only makes it harder for Portland to attract new businesses, but also will add to deeper declines in the value of all existing buildings.
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