Last week, the state legislature overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that puts a freeze on some residential building code updates, impacting energy efficiency and structural safety standards of new homes for years to come. “Based on the expert analysis that we’ve seen, the $20,000 estimate was pretty overinflated, and undersold the benefits of these building code updates to homeowners,” said Zach Amittay, a southeast advocate for E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs). Amittay likened buying a new home in North Carolina with outdated code to purchasing a new smartphone with Windows 95 software. “They’re really buying an inferior product,” he said.
