MANY TEXAS CITIES BLINDLY ADOPT FAR-LEFT GREEN NEW DEAL REQUIREMENTS ON BUSINESSES

(Austin, TX) – Rep. Jared Patterson is calling attention to far-left Green New Deal regulations on local businesses, blindly adopted by many North Texas cities in recent weeks without public discussion. They did so through adopting the latest International Code Council’s (ICC) International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Thankfully, the City of Celina, which partially stretches into House District 106, found these new requirements and excluded them from the IECC prior to adoption.

The latest version of the IECC forces all new commercial construction to utilize on-site renewable electricity generation or be forced to purchase expensive Renewable Energy Credits just to meet code requirements within the city. These far-left ideas would have never passed as stand-alone agenda items in most cities, but by burying them in hundreds of pages of code, the global group of government officials and vendors making up the ICC achieve their liberal policy goals once adopted by local governments.

Prior to adoption at the local level, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) did adopt the 2024 Amendments to the International Energy Conservation Code but failed to recommend the removal of on-site renewable energy generation requirements or the purchase of renewable energy credits. To do so would have been left to city staff to recommend before council’s adoption. That’s what took place in Celina as city staff caught the egregious requirements.

The Texas legislature has worked overtime to ensure far-left, business-killing policies like the Green New Deal have no place in Texas, only for international recommendations to be blindly adopted as a new regulatory framework for Texas businesses at the local level. That is unacceptable.

“Starting a business is hard enough without expensive and ineffective regulation,” stated Rep. Patterson. “That’s why, next session, I aim to force public discussion on all new building code development at the local level. By exposing this international influence to the local community and local input, we will protect the Texas economic miracle in every corner of this state.”

State Representative Jared Patterson is serving his fourth term representing House District 106 in Denton County. Patterson is the Chairman of the Local & Consent Calendars Committee. He also serves on the House Committees on Licensing & Administrative Procedures, Transportation, and the Subcommittee on Transportation Funding. He and his family reside in Frisco.