Mike Holt's Rating of the Electrical Industry - 2020

As part of my ongoing focus on electrical safety, we annually update our report that assigns a grade to U.S. states for electrical standards that are mandated state-wide. How does your state rank?

Congratulations!
Massachusetts was the first state to adopt the 2020 NEC^®, and the only state where the 2020 Code is currently in effect. The process is underway in several other states.

• The NEC edition adopted (range -2 for local to +3 points for current, 2020 NEC)
• Licensing and/or certification required for Apprentice, Journeyman, Master/Contractor, Inspector, and Engineer licenses (5 points max.)
• Continuing Education (CEU, CPC or PDH) required for license renewal (4 points max.)

• County and Municipality adoptions. We recognize that there are many local adoptions, and that in many cases, county and municipalities adopt the most recent building and electrical codes ahead of their state. We commend them, but the scope of anything other than state-wide mandated requirements is beyond this report. We applaud all the states, counties and local municipalities that continue to set high standards in electrical safety.
• Enforcement or effectiveness. We are unaware of a way to track or correlate enforcement as it relates to rates of incidents or accidents.

While the requirement for CEUs for license renewal is already taken into account in the safety grading system, we thought it is important to also take a more in-depth look at the number of hours required by each state for their electrical license renewal. There might be differing opinions on what is the right number of hours that should be required, but what is obvious is the huge variation between New Jersey, with 34 hours each 3 year renewal, and states that don't require continuing education at all for license renewal. Let us know your thoughts. Click here to see the Continuing Education chart.

For history and details of how grades are calculated, click here.
Note: All 12 points are required for an A+ grade.

We'd appreciate your feedback.
If you have any updated information that you feel would change our rankings on this year's report, please post your comment - we appreciate your input to help keep this analysis accurate and current.

Note: The grade for a state reflects the adoption by a state for a version of the NEC that is in effect as of the publication of this newsletter. In most cases where the grade has gone down it is due to the new point structure to accommodate the 2020 NEC and the state not yet having adopted it.

Click here for history and details of how the points are assigned.