The House of Representatives Vote on Lighting Efficiency

Bryan Howard
Legislative Director
U.S. Green Building Council

UPDATE: The bill, which needed 2/3 to pass, failed.

UPDATE: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issues statement, opposes H. R. 2417.

As early as Monday, the full House of Representatives is poised to consider H. R. 2417, the “Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act,” which seeks to roll back energy efficiency standards for light bulbs. The bill, which was introduced by Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX), seeks to repeal standards that became law in 2007 as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) while preempting states from setting lighting efficiency standards.

This bill, which due to procedural requirements needs two-thirds support in the House to advance, has been universally panned by consumer groups, advocacy organizations, and industry for a number of reasons.

First, a repeal of this kind would increase energy use. In testimony to Congress earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) went on record opposing such legislation and noted that eliminating these standards would increase energy consumption by 21 quads over the next 30 years. The U.S. uses about 100 quads of energy in a year, so this needless increase would be a staggering waste of money and increase in air pollution and its associated impacts, like childhood asthma. Such a move seems especially unwise considering that energy supplies are volatile enough to have warranted the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last month.

Second, the bill would cost consumers more money. According to analysis from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), utilizing these new lighting standards would save individual consumers annually over $85 a year, or over $12.5 billion nationwide. Raising cost to consumers would come at a time when the unemployment rate is still hovering at 9 percent.

Third, it would negate the investment in efficiency that industry has already made, therefore putting them at a competitive disadvantage to foreign manufacturing. Sylvania, for instance, has made significant investments to upgrade a facility in Pennsylvania to make new efficient lighting. Cree, a LED lighting company, has grown from a small group of engineers to about 5,000 employees to meet growing demand for their products.

A bill that would increase energy use, add costs to consumers, and threaten American competiveness sounds like an idea that Congress should reject.

View the bill »

USGBC Urges Restored Funding for Critical Data Program

Bryan Howard
Legislative Director
U.S. Green Building Council

Today USBGC along with more than 70 organizations, companies and advocacy organizations sent a letter to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees urging that Congress restore funding for the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), a national survey that gathers statistical information on U.S. commercial buildings, at the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The letter was drafted and circulated by USGBC, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Real Estate Roundtable (RER) and members of the Real Estate Network for Energy and Climate Policy (RENECP), a network of professionals who support comprehensive clean energy and climate policies that advance building and location efficiency.

CBECS, a little known acronym outside of the building industry, has a huge impact on the real estate community as it is the data backbone of important programs such as LEED for Existing Buildings and ENERGY STAR. The recent budget compromise brokered by Congress and the White House cut EIA's funding by 14 percent. Because of the size and the timing of the budget cut EIA chose to suspend its work on CBECS for 2011.

Signatories of the letter, representing a diverse group of national buildings organizations, commercial real estate owners, architecture firms and advocacy organizations, urged that funding be restored to CBECS to ensure that chances to increase efficiency in commercial buildings are not squandered due to lack of meaningful comparative data.

“Opportunities to increase building efficiency and upgrade our building stock will be missed in the absence of more current and reliable CBECS data. Further delay in collecting and publishing new data will diminish the efficacy and reliability of energy benchmarking systems that depend on CBECS.”

The committees of jurisdiction are expected to consider funding for EIA in the coming weeks.

Get more information on RENECP »
Read the full letter »
Read the EIA press release »

Federal Shutdown Looming: Government Efficiency Continues to be Whipping Boy in House Budget Debate

Bryan Howard
Legislative Director
U.S. Green Building Council

With negotiations between the House and Senate failing to reach a breakthrough over a six-month spending bill for the rest of fiscal year 2011 (FY11), Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) have released a bill that includes a one-week measure that includes $12 billion in cuts. 

Among other provisions, the bill revives a $1.6 billion reduction at the General Services Administration (GSA)’s Federal Building Fund (FBF) based on the previous fiscal year 2010 (FY 10). As I have written before, similar cuts have been passed by the House of Representatives as part of H.R. 1, the Continuing Resolution (CR) of 2011, and would have an incredibly negative effect on private sector employment and sustainability efforts of undertaken by the federal government. 

Although the Senate and the White House have agreed to funding cuts, the inability to reach compromise on the specifics has brought about this one-week stopgap. If agreement cannot be reached on a longer-term bill by the end of the week it remains uncertain whether there will be even enough support in the House of Representatives to pass another short-term CR, which appears to be scheduled for a vote later this week. 

As it stands currently, the prospects of the federal government staying open for another week are looking murky at best.

For a summary of the bill, click here.

For the full text, click here.