The North Carolina House of Representatives approved a bill that would bar public projects from using the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
House Bill 628, Protect/Promote NC Lumber, says projects may use "a nationally recognized high-performance environmental building rating system" if that green building program doesn't use a credit system "disadvantaging materials or products manufactured or produced" in North Carolina.
This would block the LEED rating system, which awards credits for use of Forest Stewardship Council-certified lumber-a policy that places North Carolina products at a disadvantage as very few of the state's forests have been certified under that system, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
However, representatives from USGBC-North Carolina are upset about the bill.
"House Bill 628 compelled representatives to protect North Carolina's timber industry without providing evidence that the industry has suffered as a result of LEED certification," USGBC-NC executive director Emily Scofield told the Journal after the vote. "The USGBC-NC and its supporters worked to present the facts to our representatives that all N.C. forest products can contribute to points toward certification under the regional materials credits of LEED and some can also contribute to the certified wood credit."
The original bill was meant to call for a study investigating the effect of LEED on the state's economy.
The bill still needs to go through a third and final reading in the House before it will be passed on to the North Carolina Senate.
