HB1183 – Prohibiting the Building Code Council from restricting the use of natural gas or natural gas appliances in residential construction. (Dead.)
Prime Sponsor – Representative Dye (R; 9th District; Southeast Washington) (Co-Sponsors Goehner & Corry – Rs)
Current status – Referred to the House Committee on Environment & Energy. Still in committee by cutoff.
Next step would be – Dead bill.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Summary –
The bill would prohibit the State Building Code Council from restricting the use of natural gas or natural gas appliances in residential construction unless the Legislature had explicitly authorized such a restriction. It would remove helping to “achieve the broader goal of building zero fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emission homes and buildings” from the list of the Legislature’s standards the Council “shall follow” in developing the Energy Code. It would specify that the current requirement that the Energy Code must achieve a 70 percent reduction in annual net energy consumption from the 2006 Code by 2031 does not authorize the Council to consider greenhouse gas emissions in any decisions adopting standards or requirements. It specifies that the legislation establishing the State’s limits for greenhouse gas reduction does not create any authority for the Council to rely on or consider those limits in developing the building code or the energy code. It prohibits the Council from adopting any rules to implement the provisions of the 2021 Code that limit the use of natural gas in buildings or that favor the use of electric appliances over natural gas appliances in buildings. (It actually would also no longer allow the Council to adopt minimum performance standards and requirements for construction and materials, consistent with accepted standards of engineering, fire and life safety; or for making buildings accessible to and usable by physically disabled persons.)