Testimony of Mark Rodeffer
Sierra Club DC Chapter
Green Housing Coordination Act of 2025
DC Council Committee on Housing
January 13, 2026
Councilmember White, thank you for holding this hearing on the Green Housing Coordination Act of 2025. My name is Mark Rodeffer, and I am testifying on behalf of the Sierra Club DC Chapter. The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters, including 7,000 DC residents.
Thank you for introducing the Greener Government Buildings Act of 2022, which passed unanimously. The law requires new buildings owned or financed by the DC government to be net zero, meaning they’re highly energy efficient and do not burn fossil fuels. Net zero buildings generally do not cost more money to construct, reduce utility bills because they’re highly efficient, and cut air and climate pollution.
Net zero buildings are particularly important for the health of affordable housing residents. With no on-site fossil fuel combustion, net zero buildings improve air quality. Fossil fuels piped into homes release harmful pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, benzene, and formaldehyde. Exposure to these pollutants is linked to higher rates of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, childhood asthma, decreased cognitive function, reduced lung function, and premature death. Black and low-income residents are disproportionately impacted by indoor air pollution. Children in low-income areas of DC are ten times more likely to go to the hospital because of asthma than children in wealthier areas of DC.
Net zero buildings help ensure that affordable housing remains affordable, not just in terms of rent, but also in utility costs. This is especially important as lax oversight from the Public Service Commission has resulted in skyrocketing utility bills. Over the last five years, DC’s electricity prices have nearly doubled—soaring 93%—more than any state. Washington Gas is seeking a massive pipeline replacement costing ratepayers up to $12 billion, with a $215 million pipeline spending proposal currently pending before the Public Service Commission. This is after gas customers were hit with a 13% rate increase just this month.
If DC is serious about housing affordability, we must be serious about energy affordability. Net zero buildings do not use fossil fuels, saving residents from the multibillion dollar costs of DC’s aging gas system. Net zero buildings are highly efficient and use little energy, resulting in lower utility bills. DC cannot claim we are prioritizing housing affordability while saddling affordable housing residents with the massive costs of the gas utility and locking residents into higher utility bills from inefficient homes.
You have been a key leader on getting fossil fuels out of new buildings owned or financed by the DC government. Your continued leadership on this issue matters, and so does how you communicate about this issue.
Unfortunately, Councilmember White, at times your public communications have cast clean energy and affordable housing as at odds. They are not. Energy efficiency and renewable energy lower utility bills, making them a key part of ensuring affordability for DC residents. But in an October press release, you claimed that net zero requirements are “driving up costs and slowing progress” and “have increased project costs by approximately 15%, caused 30–60 day delays.” Those statements are untrue. Affordable housing projects since the law took effect have been exempt from net zero requirements because of emergency and temporary legislation spearheaded by Mayor Bowser and you. It is impossible that requirements that have not taken effect have had any impact on the costs or timing of anything. We asked your staff months ago to stop using this problematic language, but in a New Year’s eve email blast, and in two more email blasts, one on Sunday and one yesterday, you again stated that net zero requirements that lower energy costs actually “extend resident displacement.” The Sierra Club renews our request that you stop using this problematic language to describe the benefits of lower energy costs for DC residents. In some renovated buildings, net zero requirements can be expensive. We recognize that issue needs to be dealt with in existing buildings. In new construction, net zero buildings save money and do not add costs. Simplistic statements that gloss over any nuance are not helpful for affordable housing nor the climate.
The Sierra Club appreciates the requirement in the Green Housing Coordination Act that all newly constructed affordable homes “shall include a requirement that proposals for new construction receiving Fund support be all-electric.” We are troubled, however, that the legislation states that homes “must be designed with the intent to obtain ‘Enterprise Green Communities Certification Plus.’” We recommend striking “with the intent” from the text. As it stands, this language seems to allow developers to check off a box instead of actually delivering on the law’s promise of lower utility bills for affordable housing residents. We think DC’s affordable housing residents deserve better.
The Greener Government Buildings Act lowers costs for residents of affordable housing. Let’s make sure they’re first in line, not last, for the benefits of energy efficiency and clean energy.