Year 2016

Ryan Meres, senior code compliance specialist for the Institute for Market Transformation, considers what impact, if any, there might be on the strides made in recent years in the adoption of more stringent residential energy codes around the country.

According to Meres, “Under a presidential administration and Congress in which members, including the president-elect, believe climate change is a hoax, it’s unlikely that a Trump agenda will pay much heed to advancing energy efficiency. However, it also is unlikely that it will backtrack on current code stringency, given the development process that has been established. With increased energy code enforcement continuing to show strong benefits, with estimates of a 600 percent return on investment on enforcement by local jurisdictions and potential savings from achieving compliance of more than $126 billion in energy bills by 2040, this is good news.”

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Engineering News Record reports that last Friday a U.S. lumber industry coalition filed a petition to the U.S. International Trade Commission and Commerce Department, seeking duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports which the group alleges are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair market prices. Canada is prepared to take a strong stand against this.

As background, Canadian lumber exports to the U.S. were governed by a mutual trade agreement from 2006 to 2015. That agreement expired in October of last year and was followed by a year-long standstill agreement, during which both countries agreed not to file lumber-trade actions against each other. Also during this time, trade officials on both sides worked on reaching a new lumber agreement but were unsuccessful. Following the expiration of the standstill agreement in October, the U.S. lumber industry group moved forward with filing their petition November 25th.

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