Green Building Law--Quoted!

I was quoted in an article at buildinggreen.com on the AHRI v. Albuquerque suit.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

City of Albuquerque Suit--UPDATE

In July, I first wrote about the HVAC indistry associations suing the City of Albuquerque to invalidate Albuquerque's green building codes in one of the first instances of green building litigation. The HVAC plaintiffs filed a Motion for a Preliminary Injunction to prevent the City from enforcing the green building codes, and a hearing was held yesterday. I spoke with Doug Baker, attorney for the HVAC plaintiffs, who felt the hearing went well. His team of attorneys argued that Albuquerque should be preliminarily enjoined from enforcing the codes because they were preempted by Federal law, and that Albuquerque's attempts to amend the code to circumvent preemption were unsuccessful. Mr. Baker told me that the judge expects to rule on the preliminary injunction motion tomorrow. Stat tuned.

Albquerque Green Building Litigation--Column on Greenerbuildings.com

I wrote an extended column on the Albuquerque green building litigation which was published by our friends at greenerbuildings.com.

Please read it here--http://greenerbuildings.com/column/2008/07/11/open-floodgates-the-era-green-building-litigation

Green Building Litigation Hits In New Mexico

Well, I've been writing for a while that the green building litigation wave would hit, and it has. A coalitiion of industry groups and local companies has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Albuquerque's green building code is pre-empted by federal law. The suit claims, in essence, that Albuquerque's code has set energy requirements for certain appliances like air conditioners "that are already covered in federal law and Energy Department regulations". http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/080732metro07-08-08.htm

I am currently gathering intel on the suit and will post more later.