Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Advances USGBC-Supported Building Efficiency Measure

Bryan Howard
Legislative Director
U.S. Green Building Council

On Thursday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee took the next step in advancing key building efficiency legislation by reporting favorably S. 1000, the “Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act,” introduced by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to the Senate.

The measure, which passed on a wide bipartisan majority of 18-3, includes many similar proposals advanced in the “American Clean Energy and Leadership Act of 2009” (ACELA) from last Congress. The broad-based bill includes advances in building energy codes, creates new loan programs and expands existing ones to encourage efficiency upgrades, as well as boosts energy conservation within the federal government. To date, there are over 100 companies and organizations that support the legislation, including USGBC.

During committee consideration the bill was modified in a few key ways through a “manager’s amendment:"

1. The provisions dealing with building loan guarantees were clarified to ensure applicability to private commercial and multifamily buildings;
2. The section regarding appliances, which is already a standalone bill, was removed;
3. The title pertaining to energy efficiency administered by the Rural Utility Service (RUS) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was also removed because of committee jurisdiction.

In a statement Senator Shaheen hailed the committee’s action.

“With rising energy costs and too many Americans still looking for jobs, our country can’t afford to wait to pass a comprehensive energy efficiency strategy. This bipartisan plan will make our economy more competitive and create private sector jobs today, while also addressing our nation’s energy challenges,”

The bipartisan passage of this legislation is a good sign that it might see the Senate floor but a timeline for consideration by the full Senate was not announced.

More information on the hearing »

USGBC Supported Legislation Highlighted in Senate Energy Hearing

Bryan Howard
Legislative Director
U.S. Green Building Council

Today the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee continued its efforts to craft energy legislation that can gain bipartisan support in the Senate by hearing testimony on key green building and efficiency legislation.

The panel heard from leading private sector and government witnesses regarding S. 963, the “Reducing Federal Energy Dollars (RFED) Act of 2011,” which Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) announced at USGBC’s annual Government Summit. RFED, which is supported by USGBC and many others in the building community, ensures that federal buildings and future federal leases go through commissioning, or “tune-ups,” on essential building systems to maximize performance. In testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this year, USGBC highlighted commissioning as one of the most cost-effective strategies for reducing utility costs in buildings and encouraged its use toward greening the federal buildings stock. The bill also makes it easier for federal agencies to use private financing tools to pay for energy-efficient building upgrades, increases clarity of agency energy use, and allows for building design updates.

The committee also heard from the witnesses on S. 1000, the “Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act.” The measure from Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) includes many similar proposals advanced in the “American Clean Energy and Leadership Act of 2009” or (ACELA). The broad-based bill increases efficiency standards for appliances and building energy codes. It creates new loan programs and expands existing ones to encourage efficiency upgrades, as well as boosts energy conservation within the federal government.

At the hearing, Senate Energy Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) did not indicate when the committee might begin the process of considering these bills to move them along to the Senate floor for full consideration. However, as energy prices continue to rise there will be continued pressure to address both the demand side of energy use as well as production.

Read the summary of S. 963 »

Read the USGBC support letter on S. 963 »

Read the industry support letter of S. 963 circulated by the National Institute of Buildings Sciences »

Read the summary of S. 1000 »

Read the USGBC letter on S. 1000 »

Read testimony from the hearing »

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.

USGBC Testifies on Strategies to Increase Efficiency in the Federal Government and Promote the Better Buildings Initiative

Doug Gatlin, U.S. Green Building Council’s Vice President of LEED, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the how the General Services Administration (GSA) can eliminate waste, cut costs and improve environmental performance through improved building management and purchasing.

“With an inventory of more than 7,000 government-leased and 1,500 government-owned buildings – representing more than 354 million square feet of space nationwide – GSA has an extraordinary capacity to reduce the environmental impact of our nation’s buildings and save taxpayer dollars,” said Gatlin.

Joined by GSA Administrator Martha Johnson and other members of the real estate and business community, Gatlin provided Senators with a number of options to improve environmental performance while decreasing costs to taxpayers. He outlined a number of strategies including consistent funding to update, maintain and commission existing buildings.

“… commissioning costs, on average, $0.30/ft2 and generates between $0.25-$0.30/ft2 in whole building energy savings for a payback time of 1.1 years, and a 91% return on investment (ROI). This type of commissioning is arguably the single most cost effective strategy for reducing utility costs in buildings today.”

Jeffrey DeBoer, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Real Estate Roundtable, also joined Gatlin in calling for changes to the Energy Efficient Commercial Building Tax Deduction (179D) to make it more useable for existing buildings.

“As GSA develops its program to release excess properties into the marketplace, Congress should take complementary steps to enable retrofits of those assets by re-designing section 179D,” said DeBoer.

Changes to the tax deduction along with a number of other programs to spur commercial building efficiency were included in the recent Better Buildings Initiative (BBI) announced by the President Obama earlier this year.

To watch the full archived hearing or to read the full testimony click here.

For a detailed summary of BBI click here.

Related posts:
USGBC and the Better Buildings Initiative: How Do We Get Started Sooner?
Congressional Outlook Uncertain, but Executive Branch Opportunity Abounds