County committee approves amended building-energy rules; Green Bank readies $68.5 million for compliance support

The Montgomery County Transportation and Environment Committee on Jan. 30 approved an amended version of the county's building energy performance standards regulation, Executive Regulation 17‑23 AM, and heard that the Montgomery County Green Bank has $68.5 million in federal grant funds available to help building owners comply.

The committee vote covered changes to the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) proposed regulations for the Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) program, including recalculated final performance targets using 2023 benchmarking data, a new 30% performance-cap option for individual buildings, added property-type targets for manufacturing/industrial floor area and ambulatory surgical centers, and clarified rules for deductions related to parking and electric vehicle charging. "30% is still a lot over the next 10 to 12 years," DEP program manager Emily Curley said during the presentation, describing the cap as an added compliance option for the buildings farthest from their targets.

Why it matters: Covered buildings account for a substantial share of the county's built area and are part of the county's climate strategy. The law the rules implement (the benchmarking and performance standards law, passed in April 2022) applies to most buildings of 25,000 square feet or larger—about 1,800 buildings representing roughly 250,000,000 gross square feet. DEP reported benchmarking compliance above 90% (about 95% last year), which provides the data the agency used to set and revise targets. Committee leadership and DEP officials emphasized that BEPS work is a long-term effort with interim and final deadlines stretching into the early‑to‑mid 2030s for the earliest building…