MHARR Submits Third Comments On Proposed DOE Manufactured Housing Energy Standards
Attached, for your information, are further comments filed by the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory (MHARR) on October 13, 2021 in connection with the federal Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee’s (MHCC) ongoing consideration of proposed manufactured housing “energy conservation” standards published by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on August 26, 2021. The MHCC has already held two day-long conference call meetings to review the DOE proposed rule and will continue its analysis of the August 26, 2021 DOE proposal at a third meeting currently scheduled for October 20, 2021. The attached comments are being submitted in connection with this third MHCC meeting. At present, the deadline for the submission of written comments to DOE on the proposed rule is October 25, 2021, although MHARR has filed a request for an extension of the comment deadline to December 27, 2021, due to the multi-faceted technical and cost issues raised by these new and unprecedented proposed standards.
MHARR’s October 13, 2021 comments address two principal issues: (1) the pervasive overlap between the August 26, 2021 DOE proposed standards and DOE’s thoroughly discredited 2016 proposed manufactured housing energy standards, derived from a fundamentally-tainted DOE “negotiated rulemaking” process; and (2) the fundamentally arbitrary and capricious nature of the 2021 proposed rule and its various provisions, in violation of applicable federal law.
In part, MHARR’s comments stress that DOE’s August 26, 2021 proposed rule is, in reality, nothing more than a more costly “re-boot” of the Department’s fatally-flawed June 2016 manufactured housing proposed “energy” rule, developed through a fundamentally-tainted, sham DOE “negotiated rulemaking” process, featuring undisclosed leaks of information and documents, as well as undisclosed coordination between DOE, energy special interests and DOE-favored allies.
MHARR’s third comments also address the fundamentally arbitrary and capricious nature of DOE’s futile effort to convert the 2021 IECC – a code developed for site-built homes by state and local building code officials – into something that it manifestly is not, i.e., a national code for affordable manufactured homes. This includes fundamental discrimination within the proposed rule against certain manufactured homes and manufactured home purchasers, based on criteria and thresholds that are not to be found in, defined by, or authorized by relevant law.
Again, MHARR cannot overstate the destructive and fundamentally-discriminatory nature of these unnecessary and unnecessarily-costly proposed regulations, which cannot and must not be taken too lightly by industry members. Accordingly, MHARR urges all industry members to submit comments to DOE to oppose these proposed standards, which violate existing federal law, will severely undermine the purchase affordability of manufactured homes, and exclude millions of lower and moderate-income Americans from the mainstream HUD Code manufactured housing market and homeownership altogether. To facilitate such participation, MHARR will make its DOE comments available to the entire industry in advance of current (or possibly extended) DOE deadline.
Attached, for your information, are further comments filed by the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory (MHARR) on October 13, 2021 in connection with the federal Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee’s (MHCC) ongoing consideration of proposed manufactured housing “energy conservation” standards published by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on August 26, 2021. The MHCC has already held two day-long conference call meetings to review the DOE proposed rule and will continue its analysis of the August 26, 2021 DOE proposal at a third meeting currently scheduled for October 20, 2021. The attached comments are being submitted in connection with this third MHCC meeting. At present, the deadline for the submission of written comments to DOE on the proposed rule is October 25, 2021, although MHARR has filed a request for an extension of the comment deadline to December 27, 2021, due to the multi-faceted technical and cost issues raised by these new and unprecedented proposed standards.
MHARR’s October 13, 2021 comments address two principal issues: (1) the pervasive overlap between the August 26, 2021 DOE proposed standards and DOE’s thoroughly discredited 2016 proposed manufactured housing energy standards, derived from a fundamentally-tainted DOE “negotiated rulemaking” process; and (2) the fundamentally arbitrary and capricious nature of the 2021 proposed rule and its various provisions, in violation of applicable federal law.
In part, MHARR’s comments stress that DOE’s August 26, 2021 proposed rule is, in reality, nothing more than a more costly “re-boot” of the Department’s fatally-flawed June 2016 manufactured housing proposed “energy” rule, developed through a fundamentally-tainted, sham DOE “negotiated rulemaking” process, featuring undisclosed leaks of information and documents, as well as undisclosed coordination between DOE, energy special interests and DOE-favored allies.
MHARR’s third comments also address the fundamentally arbitrary and capricious nature of DOE’s futile effort to convert the 2021 IECC – a code developed for site-built homes by state and local building code officials – into something that it manifestly is not, i.e., a national code for affordable manufactured homes. This includes fundamental discrimination within the proposed rule against certain manufactured homes and manufactured home purchasers, based on criteria and thresholds that are not to be found in, defined by, or authorized by relevant law.
Again, MHARR cannot overstate the destructive and fundamentally-discriminatory nature of these unnecessary and unnecessarily-costly proposed regulations, which cannot and must not be taken too lightly by industry members. Accordingly, MHARR urges all industry members to submit comments to DOE to oppose these proposed standards, which violate existing federal law, will severely undermine the purchase affordability of manufactured homes, and exclude millions of lower and moderate-income Americans from the mainstream HUD Code manufactured housing market and homeownership altogether. To facilitate such participation, MHARR will make its DOE comments available to the entire industry in advance of current (or possibly extended) DOE deadline.
