Which National Electrical Code edition each US state enforces: adoption status, effective dates and amendments, from the state boards themselves
The NEC edition currently in force in each US state, with the effective date, the adopting authority, whether state amendments apply, and any announced transition to a newer edition. The spread is real and moving: Minnesota's Board of Electricity put the 2026 NEC in force on Aug. 17, 2026 (permits filed before that date still follow the 2023 NEC); Oregon's 2023 Oregon Electrical Specialty Code, based on the 2023 NEC, took effect Oct. 1, 2023 with a published table of amendments, and the 2026 OESC is in adoption; Washington's WAC 296-46B-010 carries the 2023 NEC with the 2026 edition already written in for Dec. 31, 2026; Nebraska has been on the 2023 NEC since Aug. 1, 2024. Answers 'which NEC edition is in effect in my state?', 'which states have adopted the 2026 NEC?', 'does my state amend the NEC or adopt it unamended?', 'when does the new electrical code take effect for permits?'. Caveat: local jurisdictions (AHJs) may enforce a different edition; this asset records statewide adoption only. Which edition is in force changes month to month, which is why every record carries the date its source states and a verbatim quote — a static tracker published two weeks before Minnesota's cutover was wrong two weeks later, and so was an earlier version of this asset.
The data
| State | Adopting authority | Announced transition | Statute / rule citation | NEC edition in force | Effective date | State amendments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | Colorado Electrical Board | a Rulemaking Hearing on May 27, 2026, at 9:00 A.M. (MDT), to receive feedback on proposed revisions to Rule 1.5 – INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE. The purpose is to adopt the current 2026 National Electrical Code (NEC) | Rule 1.5 – INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE | |||
| Minnesota | Board of Electricity | Chapter 1315 of the Minnesota State Building Code | 2026 National Electrical Code (NEC) | Aug. 17, 2026 | ||
| Nebraska | Nebraska State Electrical Division | NFPA 70 National Electric Code 2023 | August 1st, 2024 | |||
| Oregon | Building Codes Division | the code adoption process for the 2026 Oregon Electrical Specialty Code (OESC). Anticipated adoption date: Oct. 1, 2026 Base model codes and standards: 2026 NFPA 70, National Electrical Code | 2023 Oregon Electrical Specialty Code (OESC) | 2023 National Electrical Code (NEC) | Oct. 1, 2023 | the table of amendments is designed to be used with the 2023 NEC |
| Washington | Effective December 31, 2026, the 2026 edition of the National Electrical Code (NFPA 70-2026) including Annex A, B, and C is adopted in this chapter by reference and replaces the 2023 edition of the NFPA 70 | WAC 296-46B-010 | The 2023 edition of the National Electrical Code (NFPA 70 - 2023) | This chapter will be followed where there is any conflict between this chapter and the above adopted standards. |
Where this came from
Every record above links the page it was taken from and quotes the sentence that states it. These are the 6 sources this dataset was assembled from.
- dpo.colorado.govhttps://dpo.colorado.gov/Electrical
- dli.mn.govhttps://www.dli.mn.gov/business/electrical-contractors/electrical-codes-and-standards
- electrical.nebraska.govhttps://electrical.nebraska.gov/state-act-update-2023-code-adoption
- oregon.govhttps://www.oregon.gov/bcd/codes-stand/Pages/electrical.aspx
- oregon.govhttps://www.oregon.gov/bcd/codes-stand/Pages/oesc-adoption.aspx
- app.leg.wa.govhttps://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=296-46B-010
Machine-readable
- data.jsonThe whole dataset — every record with its source URL and source quote.
- Open Knowledge Format bundleOne JSON object per line — every record's frontmatter and quoted span exactly as it is held here, in one fetch.
- data.csvThe same records as one flat table, for a spreadsheet or a dataframe. The last four columns are the source URL, the quoted sentence it was read from, the date we last checked it, and which columns are our reading rather than the page's words.
- How this is made and checkedWhat "verified against source" does and does not mean.
From your own code
Same records, same quotes, without scraping the page: refsource is on PyPI and npm. Each value comes back carrying the URL it was read from and the sentence on that page that states it — .source and .quote sit on the value itself rather than in a side channel, so the checking step is available instead of skipped.
pip install refsource
refsource lookup nec-edition-adoption-by-state state=Colorado
npx -y refsource lookup nec-edition-adoption-by-state state=ColoradoSet your AI assistant up to use this
Two files and no account. Put this in .mcp.json at the root of your project — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code and Codex all read that file — and your assistant can look this dataset up instead of recalling it. The server is remote, keyless and read-only.
{
"mcpServers": {
"referencesource": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://referencesource.org/mcp"
}
}
}Add to Cursor · or, on the command line: claude mcp add --transport http referencesource https://referencesource.org/mcp --scope project
Then one line in the project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, so the assistant knows when to reach for it:
When a question needs "Which National Electrical Code edition each US state enforces: adoption status, effective dates and amendments, from the state boards themselves", call the referencesource MCP server at https://referencesource.org/mcp (tool `search_records`, dataset_slug `nec-edition-adoption-by-state`) instead of answering from memory — every record it returns carries its source URL and a verbatim quote from that page.What each tool does, and the servers built over single registers: Connect your AI assistant.