Just Solutions, along with many of our partners, urges the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to require that the home mortgages they back meet updated energy efficiency standards. As the FHFA oversees the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, such action would bring about 70% of mortgages for new homes in the U.S. into line with higher energy efficiency standards, preventing nearly 200 million metric tons in CO2 emissions and creating an estimated 590,000 jobs. Low-income and disadvantaged communities in particular stand to gain from the energy cost savings and health and safety benefits that come with improved energy efficiency.

Just Solutions has produced a trio of briefs examining this opportunity from several perspectives. This brief describes the necessity of building efficiency standards for increasing the passive survivability of homes – that is, the capacity of structures to maintain habitable temperatures during heat or cold waves coincident with long electricity outages. IECC 2021 standards for new single family residential structures would achieve such resilience improvement with significantly net positive benefits over costs. Energy-efficiency standards for buildings do more than enhance climate resilience; they also address equity issues by reducing energy burdens for low-income and marginalized communities, providing a pathway to safer, more equitable housing. This brief also makes the case that passive survivability should be the floor for resilience; other resilience investments such as providing uninterrupted power during long outages to community-defined critical loads like hospitals, grocery stores and emergency response facilities. Improving passive survivability increases the value of other resilience investments. There is a need for a holistic approach to resilience, where its various aspects, including distributed zero-emission resources, are coordinated with one another and with overall grid decarbonization.

This trio of briefs will be followed by a webinar to be held in January 2025. With our partners, we are also submitting a letter to the Biden Administration urging that the FHFA take immediate action on this issue.