President Obama Underscores Building Efficiency as Part of the Energy Solution

Nathan Robb
Chairman
USGBC Maryland

“If we don’t develop other sources of energy, if we don’t develop the technology to use less energy to make our economy more energy-efficient, then we will always be dependent on foreign countries for our energy needs.”

President Obama made this statement last week before a packed auditorium (a crowd I was fortunate enough to be a part of) at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland. The President laid out his vision of America’s energy future, a vision where true energy independence doesn’t only come from energy development, but through energy efficiency.



This is something all of us in the green community understand. While developing new sources of energy is important - especially for an “all-of-the-above strategy” that harnesses renewable energy forms like wind, solar, and bio fuels - our country will never be truly energy independent unless we are smarter and more efficient in using energy. This means we need to reduce our energy consumption through the low-hanging fruit of energy efficiency, which starts with better buildings.

USGBC's Roger Platt, Vice President Joe Biden to Speak at National Clean Energy Summit

Roger Platt, USGBC's Senior Vice President of Global Policy and Law, is to speak at the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0: The Future of Energy on Tuesday, August 30, 2011. The event, sponsored by the Center for American Progress, the Clean Energy Project, MGM Resorts International, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, will convene key stakeholders—from seasoned business executives and entrepreneurs to public officials and energy policy advocates—to discuss the necessary steps needed to adopt robust national clean energy policy, and in doing so, realize the goals of energy security and independence and promote the clean energy economy.

Platt explains in his prepared remarks, "...buildings account for 70% of our country’s electricity consumption and 40% of our total greenhouse gas emissions. A huge part of that impact comes from completely avoidable and staggering energy waste…in stopping that waste—especially through building energy retrofits—we can tap a major source of projects and jobs that can’t be exported and that have huge up-stream and down-stream supply chain implications."

Joined by Vice President Joe Biden, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Platt will not only highlight the facts about energy waste in the Western world, but also recommended practical and economically-sound policy solutions to harness the low-hanging fruits of energy efficiency.

"Today if in my business I waste more energy than you do...I get a bigger business expense tax deduction under federal and state laws...but if I invest in the kind of project I’ve been discussing the tax consequences can be quite negative. This imbalance can and should be addressed through tax policies that I’m very pleased are finally under serious consideration in Washington," says Platt.

Platt will explain how small, yet crucial tax code adjustments like this can go a long way to undo the perverse incentives which currently prevent energy and emissions reductions in the United States.

A webcast of the event will be available at www.cleanenergysummit.org beginning at 9 a.m. PT.

Read the press release »
Access Roger Platt's prepared remarks »