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Committee debates bill to exempt small towns from updated energy codes; opponents warn of lost efficiency
Summary
Assistant Minority Leader Winter asked the House committee to consider Senate Bill 141, which would exempt municipalities with 2,500 or fewer residents from adopting residential energy code standards equivalent to the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code, saying small rural projects and volunteer-staffed towns cannot absorb the costs or inspection burden.
Assistant Minority Leader Winter told the committee she brought Senate Bill 141 to address the difficulties small towns face when required to adopt newer residential energy codes.
"We're talking sometimes up to maybe one house in a county," Winter said, urging colleagues to consider small, rural building projects rather than urban apartment development.
Supporters — including representatives of Kit Carson Rural Development and Club 20 — told the panel the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and related requirements raise construction costs by tens of dollars per square foot and impose inspection and staffing burdens that few towns with small tax bases can meet. Amy Johnson, executive director of Kit Carson Rural Development, told the committee the nonprofit has built virtually all new housing in the town in recent years and that compliance with the 2021 IECC could increase per-house costs by "as much as 10 to 20%," making projects financially infeasible in an "inverted housing market." She said Kit Carson has no building department and until recently had only a part-time clerk.
Opponents — including clean-energy attorneys, climate and public-health groups, and municipal officials — urged the committee to reject the bill. Speakers from Western Resource Advocates, Colorado Communities for Climate Action, Conservation Colorado and Rocky Mountain Institute said updated energy codes reduce lifetime utility costs, improve building durability and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Parks Peroso of Western Resource Advocates told lawmakers an updated code is "one of the most cost-effective mechanisms to ensure that Colorado's buildings are energy efficient."
Committee members pressed witnesses on how many jurisdictions would be affected and how the population cutoff was chosen. Sponsor Winter and witnesses said the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) told them roughly 167 municipalities have populations of 2,500 or less and that the sponsor and the senate sponsor had chosen 2,500 as a workforce-capacity cutoff after discussions about whether small local governments could staff code enforcement.
After questions and extended testimony, committee members first defeated a motion to move SB 141 to the committee of the whole. The committee later approved a motion to postpone the bill indefinitely on a reverse roll-call vote, removing it from further consideration at this time.
Why it matters: proponents framed SB 141 as narrowly targeted relief for very small municipalities — the sponsor described cases where developers aim to build one duplex to house teachers or nurses — while opponents argued that exempting whole classes of towns would create a statewide patchwork of standards, lock in higher utility costs for rural homes and undermine Colorado's climate goals.
What's next: The committee voted to postpone SB 141 indefinitely, effectively ending action on the bill this session.
