After the success of the Energy Star system, some political pundits were pushing for the concept to be expanded to other areas of the US market. The Energy Star system awards electrical appliances that use significantly less energy with a government sponsored distinction notifying consumers of its environment and cost-saving abilities. The role of government in stimulating green businesses has been well established, so new legislation offering federal government incentives for well built buildings had a good chance of being a positive influence, although traditionally building codes were regulated on the state and local level.
Unfortunately, the HVAC industry works off lower paid employees, and the most recent legislative push to establish a "Building Star" system included regulations that made it mandatory to pay construction workers according to federal wage requirements. This legislation could not get the approval of the largest air conditioning trade group: the Air Conditioning Contractors of America because of these wage requirements. For example, many Denver air conditioning companies use immigrant or illegal labor. Without the support of these Denver HVAC companies and the ACCA as a whole, the legislation was doomed to fail.
Some of the special features that a building would have to display to receive loans and rebates included: Mechanical Insulation, Advanced Exterior Lighting, and Envelope and Roof Insulation. These options, as well as incentives for new furnaces, variable speed compressors and heat pumps were popular with Denver air conditioner companies because they include technologies that they are already pushing on customers.
The real deal breaker turned out to be the government wage regulations. Although the Davis-Bacon requirements only require contractors to pay the "prevailing wage," contractors argued that the increase in labor costs would hamper job creation and make the certification much less appealing to most HVAC companies.
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