Honorable René Oliveira, Chair, House Committee on Business & Industry
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB1736 by Villalba (Relating to building energy efficiency performance standards.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would amend the Health and Safety Code regarding building energy efficiency performance standards. The State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) adoption of new energy codes would be based on the written findings from the Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), on the stringency of energy code editions. According to SECO, the agency could choose to amend or establish an energy rating index used to measure compliance in a voluntary compliance path of an energy code edition before adopting the edition. SECO may adopt a residential energy code edition no more than once every six years beginning on or after September 1, 2021. By rule, SECO would establish an effective date for an adopted edition. Although provisions related to the review and submittal of findings on the stringency of new editions of energy codes may result in costs associated with those additional responsibilities for ESL, this estimate assumes those costs would not be significant and could be absorbed using existing resources.
The bill would take effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house. Otherwise, the bill takes effect September 1, 2015.
Local Government Impact
No fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
Source Agencies:
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 712 Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station