A Federal District Judge has upheld a 2010 ruling against the City of Albuquerque’s 2007 Energy Conservation Code and in favor of the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI). The code raised energy efficiency standards for multifamily and commercial buildings and proposed stricter than federal regulations on HVAC equipment. In other parts of the country there are questions about code preemption. In a similar case last year, a federal judge ruled that the State of Washington could regulate overall building efficiency because the code in question included multiple compliance paths.