New Environmental Law Will Change Construction Forever: A Promising Future if We’re Ready

By Robert L. Balgenorth, President, State Building and Construction Trades Council of California

The new year is here, and it’s time to look ahead to a green construction future— which, if the transition is handled wisely, will be a golden future for well-trained building trades workers.

But there may be some rocky times during the transition to a low-carbon economy. Here’s why.

In the next 10 years, every industrial process in California will change.

Construction will change, too. Every new commercial building, every house— every construction project from waterways to power plants—will be built to comply with new environmentally friendly standards. The changes are already in the works.

In September 2006 with the passage of AB 32, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) was given the most sweeping regulatory authority in state history. Under AB 32, the CARB was given the power to regulate every stationary combustion source in California, from home water heaters to oil refineries.

Under AB 32, California must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from business as usual between now and 2020.

There will be major changes in cement manufacturing, oil refining, steel production and, of course, the generation of electricity. Gasoline and diesel fuel will contain more ethanol and biodiesel, so facilities to manufacture those products must be built.

Old industrial boilers and heaters will have to be replaced because inefficient combustion processes waste energy and emit high levels of greenhouse gases.

Land use patterns also will change, requiring major infill commercial and residential construction projects in areas already partially developed.

Because of this enormous transformation in manufacturing and construction, some jobs and skills are sure to become obsolete. Some industries may disappear and others may grow in California, depending on how the CARB chooses to regulate them. One of the first industries that will be regulated is California’s Portland cement industry.

To stay on top of this fast-moving issue, go to the CARB web site at http://www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm. Find “Popular Pages” and click on “Climate Change.” That will provide access to workshop dates, agenda items and other information about the CARB’s planning process for its new regulations.

A “cap-and-trade” system is one favored method of regulating polluting industries. In California, for example, the CARB could set a limit, or cap, on the amount of a pollutant that could be discharged into the atmosphere. Companies would obtain emission allowances for their greenhouse gas emissions. The total amount of allowances and credits would not be allowed to exceed the cap, which would limit the total amount of emissions.

Companies that need to increase their emissions would be allowed to purchase allowances from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances is called a trade. Just how this would play out in California is uncertain.

But this much we know:

• New heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems will be more sophisticated and complex. Old HVAC systems will need to be upgraded to reduce energy waste.

• California’s fresh water supply will be diminished as the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range shrinks because of warming.

• Shrinking of the snowpack will require a dramatic increase in the use of reclaimed water, and dual piping systems (gray water and potable water) may become the norm throughout California’s cities and major new buildings.

• Old power plants will be retired and replaced with more efficient gas powered plants and renewable energy power plants.

• Giant solar energy farms already are in the permitting process.

• Ethanol and biodiesel plants will be built.

• Sophisticated electronic control systems will be needed to control water and energy systems of all kinds, including the new and very sophisticated air conditioning systems.

• Solar panels will become common on commercial and possibly residential buildings.

Finally, there will be new energy-saving and energy-producing processes and equipment that are now only in the research and development stage that will be deployed in the next decade.

AB 32 and other legislation that will follow could be the fuse that ignites California’s next construction boom. But it will happen only if our joint union/employer apprenticeship programs and California’s public school system can continue to produce a new generation of construction workers that are trained in the increasingly complex technologies of the future.

That is why the State Building Trades and a coalition of labor, agriculture, public safety, health care, and business organizations is pushing hard in Sacramento to persuade the Legislature and the governor to promote and re-institute career technical education—formerly called vocational training—back into public schools.

What’s more, many of today’s journeyman workers will need to upgrade their skills so they can make the transition to tomorrow’s new technologies.

If we prepare for it, our green energy low-carbon future may well be the trigger for the next golden age of construction in California.