The commercial sector of Wisconsin's economy accounts for 14% of the total energy consumed in Wisconsin, with most of it going toward illuminating and cooling building interiors. Advances in electronic controls and lighting technologies have made this sector--corporate and government offices, schools, hospitals, multifamily dwellings, distribution centers, and retail outlets--a particularly ripe target for energy savings.

It is a straightforward and time honored practice for states to achieve energy savings by mandating stricter conservation specifications on new and remodeled buildings. This approach produces significant savings at a low cost.

While raising energy efficiency standards for buildings, the federal Energy Policy Act of 1992 also required states to revise and enforce their codes to satisfy the federal minimum standards. For Wisconsin, this obligation was long overdue; the state few hadn't revised its commercial building tents code since 1980.

Responding to this law, Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor, and Human Relations (DILHR) worked for over three years with industry and public representatives to rewrite the commercial building code in a comprehensive fashion. The rules were developed through a consensus process that included representatives from Wisconsin's Environmental Decade, PSC, the Energy Bureau, building contractors and designers, trade allies, and utilities. Several RENEW members were deeply involved in the code revision effort. The new commercial code specifies higher insulation levels, much improved lighting efficiency requirements that recognize significant improvements in technology, incentives for daylighting (using natural light to displace electric lights), and higher efficiency levels for HVAC and other equipment.

Before they were finalized, the rule revisions were subjected to review by the Legislature. Five public hearings were held on the new code requirements. The state even conducted workshops and special training sessions across the state to inform and educate contractors and the general public. By mid-March, over 1,600 people received training in the new code specifications. After some final adjustments, the rules took effect April 1, 1996.

Unfortunately, the 1995-1996 state budget effectively transferred authority over these rules from DILHR to the newly formed Department of Commerce, which had no role in the development of the new code. Emboldened by this action, malcontents in the building industry launched a last-minute end-run around the rule changes. Having contributed heavily to the governor's reelection campaign, these contractors asked Commerce Secretary William McCoshen, who chaired the governor's most recent reelection campaign, for relief from the new rules. Five days after the new rules took effect, McCoshen complied, using the emergency rule process, without any hearings, debate, or analysis, to suspend the code revisions. McCoshen's action leaves the outdated code in place for another year.

RENEW has joined Wisconsin's Environmental Decade and the Citizens Utility Board in challenging the agency's action in Dane County Circuit Court. Our premise is that the emergency declaration that suspended the code revision constituted an abuse of agency discretion. The authority to suspend existing rules is specifically reserved for the Legislature and cannot be done without a public hearing.

Even McCoshen's own agency concedes that the vast majority of the buildings under construction would satisfy the standards contained in the revised code. Thus, the agency's actions will benefit only the rear guard element in the building industry. Absent a reversal in court, this politically connected segment, aided and abetted by Department of Commerce, will do whatever it can to keep the energy conservation standards in the new rules from taking effect.