Sponsors (8)
The bill preserves access to green/high-performance building certifications and reduces near-term compliance costs by allowing fossil-fuel-consuming buildings to remain eligible, but that approach risks slowing decarbonization, sustaining local air pollution harms, and creating short-term regulatory uncertainty.
Federal, state, and local building owners (including federal employees and public building operators) can continue to obtain recognized green or high-performance certifications even if their buildings use fossil-fuel systems, preserving program access and administrative flexibility.
Homeowners and other building owners avoid immediate forced retrofits and related compliance costs because certification eligibility is preserved for buildings that directly or indirectly consume fossil fuels.
The bill repeals older DOE regulatory subparts and requires updated rules within 180 days, creating a single statutory standard and clearer regulatory framework for certifications.
Local communities, including children and other vulnerable populations, may continue to experience indoor and outdoor air pollution because preserving certification eligibility allows continued use of fossil-fuel systems in buildings.
The bill may reduce near-term incentives to replace fossil-fuel systems with electric or lower‑carbon technologies, slowing building-sector decarbonization and emissions reductions.
Repealing existing DOE regulatory subparts and delaying issuance of final updated rules could create short-term legal and implementation uncertainty for the Department, state regulators, builders, and contractors.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bars green-building certification systems from excluding buildings solely because they consume fossil fuels and requires DOE to revise related regulations within 180 days.
Prohibits green- or high-performance building certification systems from denying certification solely because a building directly or indirectly consumes fossil fuels. It repeals specified existing DOE regulatory subparts on enactment, treats certain previously deleted statutory subclauses as never having taken effect until new DOE regulations are issued, and requires the Department of Energy to publish new or revised implementing regulations within 180 days of enactment. The change affects federal building energy and design standards and third-party certification criteria by forbidding fuel-type-based exclusion from qualification; it does not provide new funding and focuses on regulatory text and timelines for DOE rulemaking.
Introduced July 23, 2025 by Nicholas A. Langworthy · Last progress April 27, 2026