You are here: Home » Green Building » Schwarzenegger Vetoes California Green Building Legislation
Stephen Del Percio | Thursday, October 18, 2007 |
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Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed the trio of green building bills which we presented here a few weeks ago. AB 888 would have required most commercial buildings in California to earn LEED Gold by January 1, 2013, while the other two bills (ABs 1058 and 35) were to apply to homes and public buildings, respectively. The Governor’s grounds for the veto were two-pronged; first, he argued that the LEED-driven standards would discriminate against California wood products in favor of foreign bamboo. Second, he expressed a reluctance to allow a third party to exert control over state building codes, as was the argument advanced by several California construction industry groups and reported by the Sacramento Bee last month. Still, Schwarzenegger did sign 18 of the Sierra Club’s list of 25 priority bills (72 percent), the highest percentage of his four-year tenure. We’ll be keeping track of whether similar proposed LEED legislation suffers the same fate as these three bills and how California legislators respond to Schwarzenegger’s concerns as expressed in his veto message.
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Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, green building legislation, LEED legislation
Category: Green Building, LEED
About the Author: Stephen Del Percio created gbNYC in the fall of 2006 and continues to serve as the site's Publisher. Stephen was one of the first ten attorneys in the country to earn the LEED AP designation, and is also the publisher of the Green Real Estate Law Journal. Contact Stephen at delpercio.stephen@arentfox.com or 212.457.5542.
Interesting. Today’s WSJ has (A13) an interesting piece that states that CA regulators will direct utility (gas & elec) companies to create programs that make new homes capable of generating as much energy as they consume by 2020 and by 2030 for new commercial buildings. Builders aren’t required to meet this goal but proposals by said utilities must be developed as incentives to builders. They’re trying to make this a component of the state’s building code and hopes to integrate this by 2011. While a big part of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s administration, he’s definitely in a tough spot fighting for reduced greenhouse emissions while supporting California wood. While California seems to be at the forefront of green legislation, the challenges of which green initiative to support will only get tougher. Green politics is just the same.
Is there a free link to the WSJ piece? I agree that Schwarzenegger is in a difficult position, but it does sound like he’ s going to work with the legislators who proposed these three bills to continue adapting the CA building code. It will be interesting to see how CA moves forward here, both with its codes and the utility regulations that you’ve mentioned.