Local legislators have signaled formal opposition to mandatory home energy audits for certain real estate transactions in the Fairbanks area.
The requirement comes from the state’s plan to improve air quality within the federally-designated serious nonattainment area in and around Fairbanks and North Pole.
That plan is supposed to show how the state will reduce levels of particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less, also known as PM2.5, to bring them in line with federal standards.
In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency partially rejected the state’s original version. But after the plan spent a couple years in a tug-of-war between the EPA and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the federal agency issued an interim final decision in January and proposed approval of an amended version.
In that amended plan is the implementation of the new regulation, which is set to start in December. It says residential building owners must pay energy raters to perform audits before they can list a property for sale in the nonattainment area. Those audits would be provided to the state conservation department and would inventory home heating and register any wood heating devices.
At a Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation meeting in mid-February, State Air Quality Division Director Jason Olds said the regulation resulted from an attempt to find a middle ground with the EPA.
“I just want to reiterate that this wasn’t initially a measure that we included, and that this was sort of the compromise from having to do weatherization or building codes,” he said.
The public comment period for the EPA’s interim final decision and proposed approval of the state plan originally ended Feb. 7. The EPA says it will extend that period for another 30 days due to concern about the energy rating requirement, but as of Sunday, public comment had yet to reopen.
In any case, last week, the Fairbanks City Council and Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly both passed resolutions – separately – urging the state to renegotiate with the EPA. At the request of some council members, City of North Pole Mayor Larry Terch also sent a letter opposing the regulation to state and federal officials earlier in February.
The two resolutions reason along similar lines, expressing worry that the regulation will create a bottleneck as sellers in the tight housing market try to schedule audits with the limited number of qualified energy raters.
According to the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, there are four such raters in the Fairbanks area.
The resolutions also argue that the mandate would add a financial burden, with some estimates for energy audits coming in between $500 and $1,000.
The Fairbanks City Council approved their measure on a unanimous vote on Feb. 24, but Councilmember John Ringstad first had a word of caution, conjuring up the history of disagreement over the air quality plan.
“We as a community have been fighting this issue for a decade or more. And we finally got to the point where the vast majority of the most onerous parts of this thing have been taken out. And I would hate to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” he said.
The Fairbanks City Council and Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly are both asking their respective clerks to distribute copies of the resolutions to a list of recipients, including state lawmakers and federal officials.
Among them is the new EPA regional administrator for Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, Emma Pokon, who President Donald Trump selected for that role in January. She previously served as the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
While in her former post, Pokon sometimes criticized the EPA’s handling of the Fairbanks area’s air quality issues, publishing an op-ed in 2023 titled, “DEC continues to press EPA for reasonable approach to PM pollution.”
On Thursday, Assemblymember Tammie Wilson suggested Pokon’s appointment could help tip the scales away from the energy rating requirement, but Borough Attorney Jill Dolan said procedures will still have to follow federal law.
“The Clean Air Act still contains requirements that you consider feasible control measures,” she said. “So if you convince the EPA administrator, and the Clean Air Act is deemed not complied with, a citizen could bring a suit.”
The assembly resolution passed 8-1 Thursday, with only Assemblymember Scott Crass voting no.