Updated
Mar 01, 2021
Cities Voted For Green Building Codes. Now Developers Want To End Voting.
Powerful lobbying groups are fighting to block cities from having a final say over building codes that could cut pollution and make energy bills cheaper.
By Alexander C. Kaufman
Star Tribune via Getty Images via Getty Images
A 280-unit apartment building under construction in Minneapolis in 2017. Nearly three-quarters of Minneapolis’ emissions came from buildings.
Kim Havey had a problem. Minneapolis was generating more and more of its electricity from renewables, dropping climate-warming pollution from power to record lows. But emissions from natural gas, which is used to heat buildings and stovetops, were climbing ― overtaking power plants as the city’s top source of carbon pollution in 2017.