Newsday reported on March 31st that 3 towns go green and mean it with 2 more going green in August.
Compact fluorescent bulbs and multi-paned windows aren't just eco-friendly options for new homes in Babylon, Brookhaven and Riverhead. As of this week, they're compulsory.
Starting tomorrow, new homes built in those towns must meet federal Energy Star standards that require builders to use extra insulation, high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, and power-saving appliances.
The Suffolk towns are the first on Long Island to make compliance with the voluntary energy efficiency benchmarks a condition of securing new residential building permits. The laws apply to single-family homes and multifamily residences of four units or less.
Similar laws will take full effect in Oyster Bay and Hempstead in August and Huntington next January. Southampton has a measure in place that applies only to affordable housing; an East Hampton energy efficiency law that draws on some aspects of Energy Star but is less sweeping will take effect in June.
Environmental advocates and the Long Island Power Authority say the laws will save homeowners money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tamp down the region's ever-growing energy demands.
With home heating oil at $4 a gallon, "it's crazy to build homes that unnecessarily waste a lot of energy," said Neal Lewis, executive director of the Neighborhood Network, an East Farmingdale nonprofit that has pushed for the laws.
Certified homes can reduce energy consumption by up to 30 percent, the federal Environmental Protection Agency says.
The rate of home construction on Long Island has slowed, with housing starts in 2007 down 69 percent from 2006. Still, depending on the pace of new construction, hundreds of homes probably would fall under the energy-efficiency laws. Last year Brookhaven, Babylon and Riverhead issued a total of 1,015 new residential building permits.
More than 500 new Energy Star homes have already been built on Long Island, according to LIPA, which promotes the standards through a $355-million clean energy initiative. LIPA offers incentives and technical support to builders who voluntarily comply with Energy Star and doles out $25,000 grants to train town-employed inspectors.
"We need to be reducing the demand for energy on Long Island," said LIPA president and Chief Executive Kevin Law. Electrical consumption increased by 20 percent between 1996 and 2006. Homes use more than 47 percent of LIPA's power.
Proponents say houses built under the new energy efficiency laws will have a smaller carbon footprint. The EPA estimates that the average home produces twice the greenhouse gas emissions as the average car, with homes contributing about 17 percent of the nation's emissions.
While some builders remain resistant to the idea of constructing homes that are more energy-efficient than the state code requires, others have embraced it as a selling point.
"Bottom line: It's good for business," said Michael Watt, executive vice president of the Long Island Builders Institute, which has worked with LIPA to set up Energy Star training programs. "People are more energy-conscious than ever. Initially, it might have been for warm, fuzzy reasons, but now it's for $100-a-barrel reasons. It's really going to be the standard going forward."