Net Zero Energy Building Code Deadline: Board of Trade Supports D.C. Mayor’s One-Year Extension
About This Testimony:
The Board of Trade submitted written testimony before the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and Environment, including the committee’s chair, Councilmember Charles Allen, regarding the one-year extension of the Net Zero Energy Building Code Deadline proposed by Mayor Muriel Bowser. The Board of Trade’s testimony supports Mayor Bowser’s proposed one-year extension of the Net Zero Energy Building Code deadline, framing it as a pragmatic pause rather than a retreat from climate goals. The testimony argues that more District-specific analysis is needed to understand the policy’s potential impacts on housing costs, energy bills, building feasibility, and electric grid readiness. It also raises concerns that accelerating building electrification without adequate infrastructure investment could create reliability challenges for the region. The Board urges the Council to use the additional year to develop impartial, independently verified data that can guide a more informed path forward.
Submitted Testimony:
Chairperson Charles Allen and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony on this important matter.
I am writing in support of Mayor Bowser’s one-year extension of the Net Zero Energy Building Code deadline, as transmitted in the FY27 Budget Support Act, and I urge this Committee to allow that provision to advance through the markup process.
A Pragmatic Pause Not a Retreat
The Net Zero Energy requirement, which would ban natural gas in all new buildings and major renovations effective December 31, 2026, is sweeping policy with significant consequences for housing costs, energy reliability, and grid infrastructure. The Mayor’s request for a one-year enforcement delay is not opposition to the goal. It is a responsible call to build the evidentiary record this policy has never had: one that goes beyond BEPS compliance tracking to provide a clear, District-specific analysis of its costs, its feasibility, its impact on housing affordability and energy bills, and the readiness of our electric grid to absorb the load. That is a reasonable ask the Council should support.
The DC Council Has Already Recognized the Burden of Compliance
Earlier this year, the Council voted unanimously on legislation introduced by Councilmember Lewis George to exempt DC government buildings, projects, and contractors from the Net Zero mandate. That unanimous vote speaks for itself. Every member of this body recognized that the cost and feasibility burden of compliance is significant enough to shield the District’s own projects from it. If the mandate is workable, District government buildings should be subject to it. If they are not, we owe the private sector the same honest accounting before the deadline arrives.
Grid Readiness Is Not a Minor Technical Detail
Space heating is the single largest energy end-use in residential and commercial buildings in this region. Electrifying that load, even incrementally through new construction, will fundamentally change the demand profile on PEPCO’s distribution system, shifting the grid from its historical summer-peaking pattern to a new winter-peak one. The infrastructure investments needed to accommodate that shift have not been made, have not been funded, and are not reflected in DOEE’s implementation planning.
The scale of what is being proposed should not be understated. During Winter Storm Fern, our regional gas system delivered 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas in a single day, the thermal equivalent of running 11 Calvert Cliffs nuclear reactors simultaneously. That capacity does not exist on the electric grid today, and PJM has documented significant and growing constraints on transmission capacity and generation adequacy across the region. Accelerating the electrification of building loads without commensurate grid investment does not advance our reliability goals. It threatens them.
The Ask Is Simple
Support the Mayor’s one-year extension. Use that year to do the work that should have been done before this deadline was set: rigorous, District-specific analysis of cost, feasibility, grid readiness, and housing impact. Good climate policy requires good data. What this moment calls for is impartial, independently verified data; analysis that all parties, including this Committee, can trust. We are committed to supporting that effort and stand ready to work with research partners to help produce it. The Council deserves more than dueling projections; it deserves a rigorous, credible foundation on which to make this decision. A one-year pause to get this right is not a step backward; it is the responsible path forward.
Thank you.
ABOUT THE BOARD OF TRADE
The Greater Washington Board of Trade, founded in 1889, is the region’s premier non-partisan business organization representing industry, nonprofits, universities, and government agencies. The Board of Trade addresses complex and always-evolving business concerns that stretch across the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia, with a priority focus on inclusive economic growth, improving the business climate, and enhancing the region’s economic competitiveness.
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