Politics is such a slippery business it would be foolhardy to count on the American Clean Energy and Security Act – more commonly known as the Waxman-Markey bill, or H.R. 2454 – finding its way into law in anything other than diminished form.

By the time it was approved六月由众议院削弱了立法的重点授权，要求预计2020年的温室气体排放量减少17％（原始目标为20％），2005年通过2005年通过CAP和贸易制度达到83％。

然而，与房地产业更相关的是1,200页条例草案的第201节，该条例草案建立了一个改进建筑能源代码的发展和全国实施的政策和计划。该条款给出代码机构，各国和地方，以便为自己达成或超过条例草案中确定的最低要求的拟议和采用住宅和商业代码的时间表。该法案还为能源部门提供了强制执行联邦守则的权力，这些守则未能遵守。国家将有一年来开发自己的代码，两年来展示合规性。

National code targets

作为能效倡导群体Alliance to Save Energypoints out, Waxman-Markey, as passed by the House, would require the DOE to establish codes that achieve 30% savings within one year of enactment, 50% savings by the end of 2014 for homes and 2015 for commercial buildings, and an additional 5% savings every three years until 2030. DOE would also be required to give technical and financial assistance to the International Code Council and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers to develop the codes, but would step in if the independent organizations did not meet the targets.

参议院的委员会现在正在努力改变气候变化立法，这可能会使公用事业和行业团体的利益更多 - 包括全国家庭建设者协会——反对2454号决议及其替代品amendment, H.R. 2998. Given Capitol Hill’s current focus on health care reform, however, it’s unlikely any of the Senate measures, much less a bill hammered out by the Senate and House, will be brought to a vote anytime soon.

As最近的分析通过公司咨询Gerson Lehrman Group指出，关于气候变化立法的进一步行动很容易被推入2010年，尽管那些反对蜡烛 - 马基账单的人应该绝不考虑战斗赢得的战斗。

Sources of confusion

关于H.R. 2454的辩论的一个副产品一直是关于其在家中能源效率的规定的错误信息。每日绿色，一个以消费者为导向的绿色产品和政策，询问Annenberg公共政策中心的非终止非营利组织，to address claims该法案将需要所有新的和现有的住宅和商业结构的能源审计。

For example, the House Minority Leader, John Boehner of Ohio, says在他的网站上这应该是法案，“您的家庭将受到新的能源评级评估和能源标签计划，这些计划将对您的旧窗户，原始灯具和日期电器惩罚您。”

FactCheck points out that there is no such provision in the bill. The group does note, however, that, in its original form, the bill would have authorized the DOE to create a building energy labeling program to “enable and encourage knowledge about building energy performance by owners and occupants and to inform efforts to reduce energy consumption nationwide.” The National Association of Realtors objected to the program, saying it would unfairly devalue older homes. NAR collaborated on a reworking of that provision, which now says a state “shall seek to ensure that labeled information be made accessible to the public in a manner so that owners, lenders, tenants, occupants, or other relevant parties can utilize it.”

在他的June 29 broadcast, radio host Rush Limbaugh went a bit beyond Boehner’s claims about audit requirements to say that “when you sell your house, environmental experts have to come in and do a survey to find out if you’ve got leaky windows, if all the environmental systems are correct, if you have relatively new appliances, and until you modernize in the way they say, you can’t sell – that’s in the bill.”

FactCheck notes that the bill contains no point-of-sale upgrade requirement. The legislation does, however, provide funding for states “to offer financial incentives, such as loans or grants, for property owners to voluntarily decide to improve energy efficiency.” Since taxpayer money would support such a program, the state would have to verify that all upgrades were made according to program guidelines.

It remains to be seen whether the building code provisions will attract quite the same level of politically charged attention. Seems unlikely. But the provisions are nonetheless under scrutiny, and it could be a while before we know their fate.