Last night President Obama delivered his State of the Union address and while he didn’t address energy efficiency specifically as he has done in this forum in the past, climate and energy issues were atop his agenda. You can read that excerpt below or the full speech here.
The ways in which the President, in addition to or instead of Congress, can promote clean energy and energy efficiency were recently outlined in the “Powering Forward: Presidential and Executive Agency Actions to Drive Clean Energy in America” by the Center for the New Energy Economy and Colorado State University.
Here are some key excerpts from the report:
In March 2013 President Obama met with 14 energy thought leaders, representing a variety of stakeholder groups, to discuss how he could further pursue a clean energy agenda using his lawful authority. Following the meeting, the leaders asked the Center for the New Energy (CNEE) to undertake a deeper examination of the President’s options in five discrete areas. In response, CNEE launched an eight-month initiative to gather ideas for additional presidential action on climate and clean energy. In dialogues, roundtables and peer reviews, CNEE engaged more than 100 participants, including chief executive officers, chief financial officers and other top executives from industry, academia, research institutions, NGOs and state and local governments. CNEE asked them what new actions by the President and his executive agencies would help our nation be more effective in meeting our climate and our energy goals.
The five areas of focus are:
1. Doubling energy productivity
2. Financing renewable energy
3. Producing natural gas responsibly
4. Developing alternative fuels and vehicles, and
5. Enabling electric and gas utilities to adapt to the new realities of the 21st century
The full report offers President Obama and his administration more than 200 recommendations for America’s transition to a clean energy economy – recommendations that CNEE believes can be implemented with the President’s existing authority.
Focusing on “Doubling Energy Productivity” a few recommendations follow:
• Amend the December 2011 Energy Saving Performance Contracts (ESPC) directive to require that agencies execute $1 billion in energy saving contracts in each of the next five years.
• Direct agencies to use ESPC more widely to fund efficiency projects in public housing, demand-response programs, data center consolidations, combined heat and power systems, waste-to-energy projects, and other energy-saving projects.
• Order the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to complete its review of new appliance efficiency standards within 90 days, as its own rules require.
• Direct the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Housing Finance Authority to analyze government mortgage data to find out whether residential energy efficiency investments reduce mortgage defaults. If they do, direct federal agencies that administer mortgage programs to reflect this benefit in their loan terms. Encourage private lenders to do the same.
• Allow electric utilities to earn credit for energy efficiency investments beyond the fence lines of their power plants as they comply with EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from generation plants.
• Work with the building industry to develop a model national code for net-zero energy buildings.
For the complete list of CNEE’s recommendations to the President, go to www.poweringforwardplan.org .
The Potential of Productivity: The President’s challenge to the country is mirrored in a report issued a week before his 2013 State of the Union address by the Alliance Commission on National Energy Efficiency Policy. Convened by the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) in 2012, the commission found that:
Over the past 30 years, the U.S. has made large gains in energy productivity. More specifically, the U.S. has expanded its economic output by more than three times the 1970 level, while the demand for energy and power resources grew by only 50% during the same time period. According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), three quarters of the energy required to fuel this economic growth did not stem from new energy supplies, but rather an assortment of efficiency measures.
Despite these gains, the opportunities for greater energy productivity remain ubiquitous. They range from how we build our cities to how we get from place to place and how we design our vehicles, appliances and homes. The Alliance Commission reported that the building sector alone offers an investment opportunity in the hundreds of billions of dollars and savings as high as $1 trillion over the next 10 years – 30% of what we now spend annually on electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that our manufacturing sector, which accounts for 11% of our GDP and 27% of our energy consumption, can improve its energy productivity by a third between now and 2035.
*Energy and climate excerpt from 2014 State of the Union (full transcript):
“Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy. The “all the above” energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today America is closer to energy independence than we have been in decades. (Applause.) One of the reasons why is natural gas. If extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. (Applause.) Businesses plan to invest almost a hundred billion dollars in new factories that use natural gas. I’ll cut red tape to help states get those factories built and put folks to work, and this Congress can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas. (Applause.) Meanwhile, my administration will keep working with the industry to sustain production and jobs growth while strengthening protection of our air, our water, our communities. And while we’re at it, I’ll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations. (Applause.) Now, it’s not just oil and natural gas production that’s booming; we’re becoming a global leader in solar too. Every four minutes another American home or business goes solar, every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job can’t be outsourced. Let’s continue that progress with a smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries that don’t need it so we can invest more in fuels of the future that do. (Cheers, applause.)
And even as we’ve increased energy production, we’ve partnered with businesses, builders and local communities to reduce the energy we consume. When we rescued our automakers, for example, we worked with them to set higher fuel efficiency standards for our cars. In the coming months I’ll build on that success by setting new standards for our trucks so we can keep driving down oil imports and what we pay at the pump. And taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. (Applause.)
But we have to act with more urgency because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought and coastal cities dealing with floods. That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air. The shift — (applause) — the shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require some tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. (Applause.) And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did. (Cheers, applause.)”
Back in late 2010, The Bush Companies, a multifamily property developer, asked Abacus Property Solutions (“Abacus”), a real estate energy advisory firm, to assist them in retrofitting their multifamily property portfolio in Virginia. One of their criteria was to finance these improvements with reduced owner equity, in order to meet their IRR hurdle rates. Abacus evaluated the usual suspects from local, state, and federal rebates, tax credits (e.g. 45L and 179D) to conventional debt. However, in Virginia, rebates for multifamily buildings were fairly limited and eligibility of the tax credits could only be confirmed after paying for energy modeling and/or an energy audit. Terms for construction financing required owner guarantees and signficant upfront equity contributions.
Fortunately, the client’s properties met the income criteria for affordable housing, and were therefore eligible for two types of grant funding under the Federal Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). For one of their client’s properties, a 50-unit low rise apartment complex in Waverley, Virginia, Abacus secured grant funding covering 100% of the renovation costs (~$300,000) or $6,000 per unit. However, due to some issues with rolling out the WAP program in other areas of Virginia, Bush’s other properties were ineligible for this type of grant. Abacus identified another grant program, the Weatherization Innovation Pilot Program (WIPP) – which provides for up to 50% matching funds of the total project cost. To date, Abacus and Bush have retrofitted three projects under the WIPP grant, with estimated savings ranging from 12-25+% and total matching funds of $500,000.
However, these projects under WIPP would not have come to fruition had a key part of the grant not been altered early in the process through the collaborative effort of Abacus, the building owner and the grant administrator, LEAP. Initially, all aspects of the retrofit funded by WIPP – from the energy audit to financing, construction and measurement and verification – were to be completed through an energy service company (ESCO). After we began the process with the ESCO, it became abundantly clear that the costs for going through one source for relatively small projects (under $500K each) would not result in viable projects from a return on investment perspective. Furthermore, using an ESCO removed any potential compeitition among third party consultants and vendors that would lower overall project costs. Abacus worked with LEAP to allow for the owner to choose their own consultants as well as act as the general contractor. By removing the ESCO requirement, more grant dollars went towards the actual energy and water measures such as new boilers, lighting, water fixtures, variable frequency drives, PTACs, refrigerators, etc. that serve the needs of both the owners and tenants alike.
Lunch with foreign diplomats, interviews with the press, meetings with politicians, and consultations with business leaders sounds like a job description for a world leader, but was in fact just a typical day for Anthony Cox and Caleb Simon of Christiansburg, Virginia-based Community Housing Partners (CHP) when they visited Argentina as unofficial ambassadors for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP).
Cox, a building science manager, and Simon, a project manager at CHP’s Energy Solutions Research and Training Center, were invited to Buenos Aires by an Argentine NGO (non-governmental organization) known as FOVISEE (Foro de Vivienda Sustentabilidad y Energias) that is dedicated to promoting energy efficiency and sustainability in low-income and social housing. Having already visited CHP’s training facility last winter to learn more about establishing a weatherization program in their home country, FOVISEE staff asked CHP to come to Argentina and share its expertise with interested stakeholders.
Cox and Simon spent a busy week this past November working with FOVISEE to help develop interest in a national weatherization effort and another program in the works called Weatherizers Without Borders that would encourage skilled energy conservation professionals to provide weatherization training and mentoring to community volunteers in South American communities.
FOVISEE’s Nicolas Maggio commented, “The need for energy efficiency in existing housing becomes even more important for low-income families, as they end up paying more for energy and are subject to health and safety threats due to irregular and precarious electric connections and homes. Due to the impact weatherization can have on energy bills and improving the ‘livability’ of a home, we believe that the WAP model would be a perfect fit for Argentina.”
To help foster support for the programs across a wide platform, Cox and Simon met with U.S. embassy staff, local community and business leaders, educators, manufacturers, and the media to explain the social, financial, and environmental benefits of investing in weatherization in Argentina. They also helped perform modified energy assessments on homes in the municipalities of Campana and Moreno and gave a hands-on weatherization demonstration to professors and students at a university in Campana.
According to Cox, “almost everyone we talked with was very interested in learning more about weatherization and how it can have such a significant impact on people’s quality of life. It’s exciting to be a part of the momentum that’s building in Argentina around energy conservation.”
Simon agreed that the weatherization message was well received in Argentina and attributed that fact to a simple truth: “People are the same everywhere. Everyone wants a better life, and we can help with that.”
On January 15, 2014, the US Chamber of Commerce unveiled a 64-point energy platform today called ‘Energy Works for US,’ designed to move changes in national energy policy to reflect major landscape changes over the past few years. The 64 ‘planks’ are strewn throughout nine policy areas and will cover energy sources from oil and coal to nuclear and renewables as well as issues like worker shortages, cybersecurity, permitting and infrastructure. The platform will serve as the Chamber’s energy plan for the coming years. You can access the platform here.
To bring this closer to home, VAEEC asked the Virginia Chamber of Commerce if they have developed a position with respect to the US Chamber’s energy platform, if they will be adopting the national plan, and what should we expect here in the Commonwealth?
The Virginia Chamber’s Keith Martin, Vice President of Public Policy & General Counsel, responded, “The Virginia Chamber just completed a strategic business plan called Blueprint Virginia. We met with over 7,000 businesses throughout the state to discuss issues of economic competitiveness. One of our focus areas was energy. Based on the recommendations we received from the business community, our goal is to create a balanced, sustainable energy policy that supports economic development and job growth while meeting the growing needs of our population and business community.”
“As you can see from our recommendations on energy, there is a lot of overlap between our blueprint and the U.S. Chamber’s energy platform. We intend to take our recommendations to Governor McAuliffe as he develops his energy plan for the Commonwealth.”
Blueprint Virginia’s Energy focus is on four areas:
Efficiency & Education
• Leverage private-sector investments for energy-efficiency improvements in state-owned buildings.
• Bring new energy-efficiency technologies to market through incentives.
• Strengthen consumer education and technical support for energy efficiency.
• Provide understandable, useable information to energy consumers directly at the consumer and retail level.
• Localize Virginia’s energy education efforts.
Energy Reliability
• Support investments in grid reliability and security to promote the most reliable possible service.
• Promote energy infrastructure planning to make the state’s energy supply resilient and secure.
• Encourage energy policy that accounts for the increased risk of energy disruption.
• Emphasize the importance of infrastructure investments to energy regulators and companies.
Infrastructure Investment
• Encourage continued fuel diversity through traditional and alternative energy investments in new sources of power generation, including but not limited to natural gas, coal, nuclear, biomass, solar, and wind.
• Identify highest potential opportunities for gas infrastructure investment to spur economic development.
• Better position Virginia’s offshore wind industry through investments in data technology, port capacity, and other opportunities to increase the supply chain potential of offshore wind.
Strategy Job Creation
• Shape public policies to take advantage of the dramatic increases in domestic energy supply.
• Support the full range of energy resources in Virginia to promote stable rates, economic development, energy independence, and environmental protection.
• Focus on energy investment opportunities that promote jobs, capital investment, and economic development.
• Build on Virginia’s affordable energy prices and reliable energy supply as a competitive advantage in recruiting business to the Commonwealth.
Blueprint Virginia’s Technology, Innovation & Startups focus is in six areas:
Innovation Funding
• Identify and encourage adequate funding and tax policy: Center for Innovative Technology GAP Funds; Angel Investment Tax Credit; capital gains tax exemption; Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund; R&D Tax Credit.
• Promote the creation of regional private investment funds.
• Support the creation of industry-specific accelerators.
Entrepreneurship
• Create a stronger environment for entrepreneurship (outreach on available resources, teaching entrepreneurship in the schools, and statewide recognition).
• Enhance Virginia’s Business One-Stop portal.
STEM Education
• Continue to encourage experiential STEM opportunities for students, such as the CSIIP.
• Continue to explore policies to recruit and retain STEM teachers.
• Continue to emphasize STEM degree attainment.
Technology Sectors
• Continue to use the R&T Strategic Roadmap for investment in priority sectors.
Commercialization
• Strengthen the Commonwealth’s efforts to commercialize university intellectual property and support federal facilities IP transfer initiatives.
Broadband
• Continue to invest in expanding broadband coverage and planning efforts.
• Promote cooperation and coordination through public-private partnerships to expand broadband services and lower deployment costs in areas where broadband expansion is not economically feasible.
For an Executive Summary of Blueprint Virginia, click here.
For the Energy Works for Us plan, click here.
VAEEC is pleased to spotlight the companies, organizations, utilities and municipalities it works with to advance energy efficiency in Virginia.
December 2013 Member Spotlight: Altus Corporation
Altus Corporation is a commercial mechanical and controls contractor based in Virginia, serving the mid-Atlantic and southeast states. We have the honor of serving Retail Store Chains, Local Governments, Utility Companies, Federal Government Offices, Automated Regional Distribution Centers, Warehouses, Country Clubs, Climate Controlled Wine Distribution Centers, Property Management Companies, Energy Service Companies and Universities.
In what ways does your company promote energy efficiency?
The management at Altus Corporation chose to become involved in energy conservation during the Energy Crisis of the 1970’s. Since those days of the early ‘Energy Management Systems’ Altus Corporation has installed hundreds of automation systems throughout the region. Our focus on energy conservation and the countless benefits conservation provides to our customers, to the environment and to future generations is an integral part of the services we offer. Whether proposing solutions to the simplest of air distribution problems, motor replacements or major equipment replacements, we offer efficiency upgrades as the preferred option. We have promoted energy efficiency through our customers and our competitors as active supporters of the Association Of Energy Engineers since it’s inception.
How do you describe the value of energy efficiency to your customers?
Some of our customers prefer to explain the value of energy efficiency to us. One facilities manager in particular describes how they have reduced their annual corporate energy usage while adding tens of thousands of square feet of new facilities. We are fortunate to have customers that recognized early on that energy conservation not only improves their bottom line, but is the socially responsible way to conduct their businesses. They also recognize that minimizing energy cost is essential to surviving in today’s competitive market.
What innovative trends do you expect to see in the near future?
We are pleased to see new energy saving technologies becoming economically viable such as variable frequency drives in single zone rooftop units. We also expect to see the marriage of new and old technologies in addressing the ventilation air requirements in the current codes. In addition, we expect to see Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) and Variable Refrigerant Volume (VRV) systems become more popular in the states in coming years. Hopefully some of the American equipment manufacturers will develop their own systems so that we can maintain our ‘Buy American’ preference.
What do you hope to accomplish as a member of the VAEEC?
We believe that membership in the VAEEC will allow us to stay up to date with, and contribute to, energy efficiency improvements and clean energy in Virginia.
One of the most anticipated presentations at our recent biannual meeting was the sneak-peak at our first-ever Virginia Energy Efficiency Census, the report on which will be released in early 2014. The slide presentation overview of the census results is available on the VAEEC website.
To complete this landmark report, we have requested two things from VAEEC members:
- Review the draft report. We’re looking for a handful of volunteers to sit on the Census Report Review Committee and provide feedback on the draft report in early January. Please email Harold@vaeec.org to be a part of the committee.
- Provide real world examples. Many of the key findings of the report will be much stronger in the eyes of policymakers when paired with actual examples. We are seeking anectdotes and testimonials that speak to the following results:
- A full half of Virginia’s energy efficiency and renewable energy businesses obtain 75% or greater of their income from these sectors. Does your business focus almost exclusively on energy efficiency?
- The number of energy efficiency sector businesses has grown 191% since 2000. Is your business new to Virginia in the last 13 years?
- The factors that businesses cite for hiring new staff in this field include: consumer awareness, access to incentives, access to utility programs, and economic development support. Has your business hired new staff thanks in part to those factors or, v/v, been stymied by the lack of those programs?
- Businesses acknowledged that the skills gap that prevented additional hiring were customer service/sales, energy auditing, and engineering and design. Have these or other skills gaps hindered your efforts to add jobs?
- The most desired market catalysts identified were green/energy efficiency programs, performance-based incentives, rebates, adoption and enforcement of enhanced building codes and improved access to customer energy use data. Can you envision ways these programs could – or have – bolster your business?
If you’re willing to tell your company’s story to underscore the above data points, please email info@vaeec.org or harold@vaeec.org by January 10, 2014. You and your company will receive credit in the final report.
Guest blogger: Andrew Grigsby, Commonwealth Sustainabillity Works, VAEEC Governance Board
On December 3rd nearly 100 leaders in Virginia’s energy efficiency industry gathered for the biannual meeting of the Virginia Energy Efficiency Council. The agenda was packed with presentations from notables like Al Christopher of the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy; Andy Farmer of the State Corporation Commission; Cisco DeVries of Renewable Funding; and Subid Wagley of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
(If you couldn’t make it to the meeting, you can download most of the presentations.)
I captured a few of the most compelling conversation points from the meeting:
- Perhaps energy efficiency advocates should partner with local and state economic development agencies? Few things create jobs better. Virginia might look to some efforts in North Carolina where communities are responding to the statewide Renewable Portfolio Standard.
- Let’s buy building energy efficiency like we buy cars – with simple financing and an understanding of reasonable payback – and with an understanding that this is an asset that can be passed along to the next owner when we are done with it.
- Would you pay ahead for 30 years of cell phone service? That’s $40K. Why shouldn’t a homeowner pay for efficiency upgrades the same way: month-by-month as we use it?
- Some 50% of Virginia schools are more than 50 years old. That’s a huge opportunity for energy efficiency work.
Part of the meeting was a sneak-peek at our first-ever Virginia Energy Efficiency Census report that VAEEC will be releasing before the VCU Energy and Sustainability Conference in mid-February. A request was made for VAEEC members to volunteer to review the draft report in early January, and to provide anecdotes and testimonials to include in the report. Ivan Urlaub, Executive Director of NCSEA, was a featured speaker, too, who highlighted how their census has augmented energy efficiency efforts in North Carolina.
Get more details and help us out.
Contact: Annie Suttle, Virginia Energy Efficiency Council, 434.249.9817, annie@leap-va.org
Gubernatorial Election Implications and Statewide Industry Census on Agenda
Richmond, Virginia – The Virginia Energy Efficiency Council will welcome more than 100 leaders in the energy efficiency industry to its biannual meeting today. Participants will get a sneak peek at and briefing on the 2013 Clean Energy Census in Virginia, the first of its kind, which will be released in January. The meeting will also include a Crystal Ball Panel that addresses the gubernatorial election’s implications for energy efficiency in the Commonwealth.
“We’re thrilled to have another packed house of the thought leaders and drivers in Virginia’s energy efficiency industry,” said Steve Walz, VAEEC’s Governance Board Chair. “This is the ideal space for networking, exchanging ideas, and getting up to speed with the state of the energy efficiency industry in the Commonwealth. We’ll address topics that are of great and immediate import to our industry and our state like the recent Energy Efficiency Census that VAEEC conducted and the possible implications of the recent statewide elections.”
The full agenda is online. Featured speakers and topics include:
• Ivan Urlaub, Executive Director North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (“Clean Energy Census: How has NCSEA Leveraged the Census for EE Jobs Creation in North Carolina and Lessons for Virginia”)
• Bill Greenleaf, Richmond Region Energy Alliance and VAEEC Board (“Overview of Virginia Energy Efficiency Census”)
• Subid Wagley, DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (“DOE Energy Efficiency Initiatives in Buildings”)
• Cisco DeVries, President and CEO of Renewable Funding (“Commercial PACE and the WHEEL”)
• Al Christopher, Energy Division Director, Dept. of Mines Minerals and Energy (“What the new Governor could mean for energy efficiency and the State Energy Office”)
• Andy Farmer, Education Resources Manager, State Corporation Commission (“What’s ahead & their decision-making methodology”)
• Bob Holsworth, Managing Principal, DecideSmart (“How the most recent election might impact energy efficiency in the Commonwealth”)
• Cynthia Adams, Executive Director, Local Energy Alliance Program and VAEEC Board (“Update on federal energy efficiency policies”)
The Virginia Energy Efficiency Council (www.vaeec.org) is a trade organization whose mission is to assess and support programs, innovation, best practices and policies which grow Virginia’s energy efficiency industry and to provide a forum for stakeholder interaction. Current 2013-2014 members include:
Business Gold:
• Dominion Virginia Power
• Local Energy Alliance Program
• Old Dominion Electric Cooperative
• OPower
• Rappahannock Electric Cooperative
• Siemens
Business Silver:
• 2rw Consultants, Inc.
• Columbia Gas of Virginia
• Commonwealth Sustainability Works
• Community Housing Partners
• Comverge
• D&R International
• GoodCents
• Southland Energy
• Trane
Academic:
• North Carolina State University
• Tidewater Community College
• Virginia Commonwealth University
Government:
• Chesterfield County
• City of Charlottesville
• James City County
• Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
• Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy
• Virginia Energy Purchasing Governmental Association
Individual:
• Paul Brooks, Johnson Controls
• Tom Cassidy
• Lisa Dobriansky, General Microgrids
• Bill Greenleaf, Richmond Region Energy Alliance
• Elizabeth Gruben, Watt Savers
• Abigail Johnson, Abacus Property Solutions
• Sandra Leibowitz, Sustainable Design Consulting LLC
• Brian Redmond, Paragon Energy Holdings LLC
• Jeff Soplop, Energy Savvy
• Molalenge Teshome, Bridgewater College
• Liza Tuttle, GE Appliances and Lighting
• Steve Walz, Northern Virginia Regional Commission
• Billy Weitzenfeld, AECP
The Virginia Energy Efficiency Council is pleased to announce that we’re hiring an Executive Director. The position is part-time with the goal of growing it to full-time with successful fundraising.
Check out the job description.
All qualified candidates may apply by sending a cover letter and resume to Stephen Walz, VAEEC’s Governance Board Chair, at steve.walz@verizon.net.
Closing date for applicants is December 9, 2013.
It’s an exciting time for energy efficiency in Virginia. Please spread the word and help us find a rockstart to join the VAEEC team!
Contact: Cynthia Adams, Governance Board, Virginia Energy Efficiency Council
434.825.0232/cynthia@leap-va.org
Virginia Energy Efficiency Council (VAEEC) Travels to Washington to Encourage Congress: “Act on Energy Efficiency”
Charlottesville, VA – Cynthia Adams, Executive Director of the Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) and Vice Chair of the Virginia Energy Efficiency Council, is traveling to Washington to meet with lawmakers about energy efficiency and the opportunity it presents for Virginia businesses. Adams is joining business leaders from across the country in the Bipartisan Energy Efficiency Day, along with representatives from the nation’s leading energy efficiency providers, including Honeywell, Siemens, United Technologies Corporation, Schneider Electric, Ingersoll Rand, Danfoss, Johnson Controls Inc. and Owens Corning.
Adams will join other Virginia delegates to meet with their representatives in Congress to communicate the value of energy efficiency and share highlights from their own business experience. Participants include business leaders from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, Virginia and North Carolina.
“Common sense energy legislation is a win-win that means savings for Virginia businesses and communities,” said Cynthia Adams, Executive Director of LEAP. “I’m joining Virginia business leaders in encouraging Congress to support bipartisan energy efficiency legislation that accelerates energy-savings practices, reduces government spending and saves taxpayers money.”
The Bipartisan Energy Efficiency Day is one of several educational events taking place on Capitol Hill this week to highlight the importance of energy efficiency to the American economy. Also happening this week in Washington is:
· Energy Efficiency: A Win-Win EESI Briefing: A panel hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and featuring a discussion among leading energy efficiency providers on innovative solutions and services businesses have developed to reduce energy use in the building and industry sectors, and what policy makers can do to further promote energy efficiency gains.
· The Alliance to Save Energy’s Great Energy Efficiency Day: A half-day event featuring presentation and discussion focused on doubling U.S. energy productivity by 2030 through efforts at the local, state and federal level.
· Next-Gen Data Centers: Bringing Energy Efficiency to Government: A panel presentation featuring leading industry and academic experts who will discuss the nature and importance of the federal government as an early adopter of next-gen data center technologies. Hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and the Digital Energy and Sustainability Solutions Campaign (DESSC).
These events come as Congress is considering several bipartisan energy efficiency bills that, if passed, could accelerate adoption energy efficiency technologies.
“Energy efficiency is a key driver of economic development,” added Adams. “We are keen to see Congress act on bipartisan energy efficiency legislation that will help reduce energy consumption that will produce energy savings for businesses and families alike that makes our local economy more competitive and our communities stronger.”
About VAEEC
The Virginia Energy Efficiency Council is a non-profit organization based in Virginia whose mission is to assess and support programs, innovation, best practices and policies which grow Virginia’s energy efficiency industry and to provide a forum for stakeholder interaction. For more information, visit: www.vaeec.org
