Last year the Washington State Building Code Council (SBCC) adopted new rules intended to ban natural gas water and space heating in new and remodeled construction. However, they did so while violating state laws that require calculating the impact on small businesses in Washington state. We have been leading the effort to hold the SBCC accountable through the State’s rulemaking appeals process.

Our work is part of the larger effort to preserve energy choice and reliability in Washington. Yesterday, an initiative to preserve energy choice turned in more than 430,000 signatures to prevent the state from banning natural gas.

In April, when we last wrote about this issue, the SBCC had denied our petition to repeal amendments to the 2021 State Energy Code over noncompliance with the Regulatory Fairness Act (RFA). The Governor subsequently denied our appeal without addressing the substance of the noncompliance. You can read our appeal ( Gov Natural Gas appeal) and the Governor’s response ( Governor SBCC Response).

We have now submitted a request to the Joint Administrative Rules Review Committee (JARRC) to review the SBCCs rulemaking and the RFA. JARRC has the authority to hold agencies accountable when they violate laws regarding rulemaking procedure. In 2009, JARRC voted against the SBCC due to a violation of the RFA and recommended the Governor suspend changes to the energy code.

The SBCC has, once again, failed to comply with the same law.

In both 2009 and 2023 the SBCC failed to properly calculate how much it will cost small businesses to comply with the rule changes and estimate what impact they will have on jobs. These are not optional, the RFA says they must make these estimates and adjust their rulemaking to reduce disproportionate economic effects.

When agencies fail to properly measure and report data as required by the law, it denies the members of the SBCC, researchers like the WPC, and the public the ability to perform a complete and credible analysis of state policies.

Small businesses are vital to our economy and are disproportionately vulnerable to negative effects of regulation. The RFA is an important law that protects small businesses from adverse costs of compliance from rulemaking. When agencies correctly follow the RFA, small businesses and the broader economy benefit. This is particularly important as small businesses are already facing tough economic conditions from inflation and higher interest rates.

JARRC has a chance to show, like they did in 2009, that following the law is important and they will hold agencies accountable to the requirements place on them by the legislature and that laws cannot be ignored whenever it is convenient. At stake is respect for the rule of law and potentially significant harm to small businesses and Washington’s families.