UPDATED: For those following along with the Illinois adoption of the 2018 IECC (Energy Code) you might have noticed that it has gone strangely quiet especially as they were supposed to take effect March 1st per the EEB Act. Well as of this moment it appears that the “official” date will now be May 1st. ***June or July? (Original Timeline)
JCAR Public Comment Changes:
While many of us thought there might have been some pushback on items approved by the subcommittees, but then having them stripped out… Well it appears that even if there was, it came to naught as the official word on February 27th is that the…
CDB has filed for Second Notice with JCAR for the Energy Code rules. No changes were made to the rules before filing. So they are the same as when originally filed with JCAR.
I heard from CDB’s Legal Department this morning that the March JCAR agenda is full and the Energy Code rules will be on the April agenda. We will work with JCAR to amend the effective date that we have in the rules from March 1, 2019 to May 1, 2019.
So why May 1st?
The first major issue as noted is that the March JCAR agenda is already packed so they have to wait till April’s meeting (now May’s – see below). But shoot even if they got it in during March’s meeting, that wouldn’t have been approved until the 12th. In order to start March 1st it would have had to been on February’s agenda at the latest.
Let’s call it what it is – major slippage & wishful thinking… First there was a one+ month delay on submitting it to JCAR (August to September). Of course that means that said submittal doesn’t get recognized until October & then it has to be officially published to allow for a 45 day public comment period. Needless to say that wasn’t until December 7th and that lasted till January 22nd.
No big deal right… well the official timeline had the Council reviewing any comments & making any needed changes in November with a final submittal to be completed no later than the February meeting. With them not getting all the comments in till the end of January that would be a miracle and based on the time listed it probably wouldn’t be till April. With that they managed to get it done sooner than that but JCAR’s schedule for March was already booked so we end up with April.
How about the Illinois EBA requirement that says March 1st?
Well this gets down to what does one consider the “publication” date? When the timeline was drafted they were using August 2017 as the publication date while DOE officially lists it as November. This essentially gives them an additional 3 months or until June of 2019 assuming they use that date. Now whether that should be considered the 1st or 30th… Personally I would be surprised if they go with May 1st & expect them to choose June or July 1st, but hey this is Illinois. Of course, this only applies to buildings permitted after that date.
*** June or July now?
Heh, remember what I said about the roofing issues – well it appears (reading between the lines) that they may have gone directly to the legislators & done an end run…
CDB has been asked by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) to present the Energy Code rules to the CDB Board for reconsideration. This relates specifically to the amendments that the Board voted to remove at their September 11, 2018 meeting. JCAR asked that both the proponent and opponent be at the meeting to present their side. This is an open meeting so anyone may attend.
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This is a link to our webpage that has information regarding our Board meetings. https://www2.illinois.gov/cdb/about/boardmeetings/Pages/20182019Meetings.aspx
I will send an email after the meeting to let everyone know the results of the meeting. The rules have been postponed at the request of JCAR until the CDB Board has an opportunity to reconsider the rules. They were initially scheduled for the April JCAR meeting but will now be on their May agenda. This will also move the proposed effective date again. We are now tentatively planning for June 1, 2019.
