In hundreds of counties and cities across America, local officials are embracing Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). PACE effectively expands access to credit to help property owners improve or repair their properties with efficient products, while creating and sustaining local jobs at no cost to public budgets. Solution-oriented mayors like us appreciate the innovation and value of PACE – which is why it’s bewildering to see lawmakers in Congress trying to kill it off.
PACE has bipartisan appeal – and is also supported by groups as varied as the National Association of Manufacturers and the Natural Resources Defense Council – because it offers a free-market approach to advancing public-policy objectives. PACE gives property owners access to private capital to make energy, efficiency and resiliency improvements to their properties; the financing is then repaid at a fixed rate through an additional line item on the owner’s property taxes.
Read the full op-ed.(The Hill; Authors: Jeri Muoio Ph.D. (D), Mayor of West Palm Beach, Fla. and Rex Parris (R), Mayor of Lancaster, Calif.)
Scientific consensus shows that increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide contribute significantly to rising sea levels, extreme weather events and degradation of natural resources. These trends threaten national security, human health, food supply, natural ecosystems and global economies. Climate change clearly is one of the biggest global crises of the 21st century.
The American Institute of Architects asserts that architects play a vital role in combating climate change. Buildings are major producers of carbon, so climate change poses both major obstacles and opportunities for the profession. We accept these challenges.
We uphold the following principles:
The US must lead the fight against climate change. The federal government must maintain America’s global leadership in the design and construction of carbon neutral buildings. Current federal policies that set goals by 2030 for carbon neutrality in federal buildings are already creating major advances in energy efficient design.
We believe that the business case for reducing the carbon footprint of buildings is stronger than ever before. Studies show that sustainable and energy efficient buildings command rent premiums of 2 percent to 8 percent, occupancy increases of 3 percent to 10 percent and sales premiums of 3 percent to 12 percent. High performance and sustainable homes in the Washington, DC market command sales premiums of 3.5 percent. (Source: Energy Efficiency in Separate Tenant Spaces – A Feasibility Study)
Read more (American Institute of Architects)
Are you happy to have cheap, efficient light bulbs that don’t flicker and hum? How about a large refrigerator that uses less electricity than the old incandescent bulb? A small government office has played a key role in all of these innovations and now helps the average American family save almost $500 each year in lower energy bills.
Yet this silent saver is under attack. Like ENERGY STAR® and other effective federal energy efficiency programs, the Building Technologies Office (BTO) would be slashed in the administration’s proposed budget for 2018. It may not be “sexy,” as the last president once called insulation. But few offices are more important to consumers.
Our recent fact sheet shows how BTO helps consumers save money, creates jobs, fosters innovation, makes businesses more competitive, and helps states and local governments. BTO is one of 11 program offices in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office, which in turn is a small part of the Department of Energy.
At a cost of less than $2 per household, BTO is helping you save almost $500. Actually, that’s just in appliances, equipment, and lighting covered by efficiency standards that BTO issues. BTO helps throughout what I call the virtuous spiral of energy efficiency market transformation.
Read the full story. (ACEEE)
When the Trump Administration published its proposed budget in March, most government programs aimed at investing in energy efficiency were on the chopping block, including one of the most successful public-private collaborations of all time: the Energy Star program created under George H.W. Bush and managed by the Department of Energy.
For the next five months at least, the initiative remains fully funded with about $50 million, according to the Alliance to Save Energy (the exact amount isn’t broken out separately). That’s basically the same annual amount that has been allocated to the program for the past 15 years, but the impact of that investment has been sizable — the estimated savings related to Energy Star guidelines from appliances to buildings is pegged at around $430 billion over the lifetime of the program, according to the EPA. Even electric vehicle chargers are covered, an addition made in the waning days of the Obama administration.
Perhaps just as compelling, as of 2014 (PDF), at least $165 billion in private-sector investments was linked to the effort. There are at least 16,000 Energy Star “partners” — organizations that have invested in the strict, ongoing certification program.
Some other stats more likely to be persuasive with the new president’s advisers: about 2.2 million jobs are pegged to energy-efficiency initiatives across the United States, including those in manufacturing, installation, retrofits and construction. More than 20 cities and states use its metrics to help benchmark the progress of their own regional energy-efficiency projects.
Despite those compelling numbers and the short-term reprieve in early May, the program’s long-term fate is far from certain and the business community is speaking up. More than 1,050 companies — including giant door and window manufacturer Andersen, HVAC powerhouses Ingersoll Rand (parent of the Trane brand) and United Technologies, real estate companies CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle, and tech giant Samsung Electronics — added their signatures to a letter (PDF) sent to four key U.S. senators and representatives Congress in late April urging them to stand up for energy efficiency in general and Energy Star in particular.
Read more (Green Biz)
As lighting technologies evolve and adapt to federal standards, lighting in U.S. homes is in a state of transition. Data from the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) show that, as of 2015, most homes in the United States used more than one type of lightbulb, primarily a mix of incandescent and compact fluorescent (CFL). Adoption of light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs has been increasing, with 29% of U.S. households reporting at least one LED bulb installed.
Residential lighting generally shifted from less energy-efficient lighting, primarily incandescent bulbs, to more energy-efficient lighting, including CFLs and LEDs. In 2009, 58% of all households used at least one energy-efficient bulb indoors. In the 2015 RECS, which was administered from August 2015 to April 2016, 86% of households reported using at least one CFL or LED bulb. Nationwide, 18% of households reported that they had no incandescent bulbs in their homes.
Increasing the use of energy-efficient lighting has been a focus of many programs conducted by state and local governments and electric utilities. Between the two most recent iterations of the RECS (2009 and 2015) the lighting standards specified in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 began to influence residential lighting. EISA increased the minimum efficiency standards for general service bulbs (the type most commonly found in homes) starting in 2012, requiring that new bulbs be about 25% more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs.
Efforts such as the federal ENERGY STAR program and the Lighting Facts labeling program were intended to help consumers make informed lighting choices. Energy efficiency programs administered by utilities and agencies in many states offered free or subsidized high-efficiency bulbs and provided education about energy efficiency.
Read more (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
At the end of this month, a working group convened last year by Gov. Terry McAuliffe and tasked with recommending “concrete steps” to reduce carbon pollution from Virginia’s power plants will deliver its report to the governor’s desk.
And in the final months of the governor’s term, environmental groups are expecting McAuliffe to deliver what they see as an unfulfilled campaign pledge for meaningful action at the state level in the fight against climate change.
“We helped bring him to the governor’s mansion,” said Michael Town, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, at a sparsely attended news conference Tuesday at the Capitol Square Bell Tower. “Now, at the end of that process, it is time for the governor to act. We’ve heard enough rhetoric; we’ve heard enough words. Now we need action, bold action by the governor to address climate change.”
The working group created by Executive Order 57, which McAuliffe signed in June, was led by Secretary of Natural Resources Molly Ward and included Secretary of Commerce and Trade Todd Haymore; Department of Environmental Quality Director David Paylor; Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy Director John Warren; and John Daniel, a deputy attorney general for commerce, environment and technology.
Read more (Richmond Times Dispatch)
President Trump has named Dan Simmons, an opponent of policies meant to promote renewable energy, to lead the renewable energy office at the Department of Energy.
Simmons formerly worked at the Institute for Energy Research, a self-styled free-market energy think tank that is funded largely by fossil fuel interests.
An Energy official announced Simmons’ appointment to lead the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in a recent email to employees, which noted that Simmons started at the department during the Trump administration’s transition period.
Read More (Green Tech Media)
Utility Dive: Last-Minute Congressional Budget Compromise Saves EPA, ARPA-E Funding
- The bipartisan budget compromise reached by Congress over the weekend salvaged funding for both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and clean energy research conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
- The EPA’s budget was trimmed by 1%, and ARPA-E actually received a $15 million boost instead of being eliminated, as previously proposed by the Trump administration. The deal runs through the remainder of the government’s fiscal year, which is Sept. 30.
Energy Matters: Australia Hits New Solar Energy Record
The Australian Photovoltaic Institute (APVI), with data from the Clean Energy Regulator, says the country has a new solar energy record.
There are now 6 GW of solar power across the country, enough to meet the electricity needs of 1.3 million households.
Read more (Greentech Media)
We welcome the new congressional budget deal as a promising sign of bipartisan cooperation. The deal maintains funding for essential programs that work with the private sector to create jobs, spur economic growth, and transform energy waste into wealth.
It will continue essential work done by the Department of Energy (DOE), including these programs: Building Technologies Office, which has helped the average household save almost $500 a year in energy costs through appliance standards; Advanced Manufacturing Office, which develops new products and markets that boost the competitiveness of American businesses; Weatherization Assistance Program, which provides thousands of skilled construction jobs via home energy upgrades for low-income families; the State Energy Program, which supports efficiency programs within the states, with broad state discretion; the Vehicle Technologies Office, which develops fuel efficiency technologies and better batteries; and the Federal Energy Management Program, which saves taxpayer dollars by lowering the federal government’s energy bills.
Read more (ACEEE)
Scientific consensus shows that increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide contribute significantly to rising sea levels, extreme weather events and degradation of natural resources. These trends threaten national security, human health, food supply, natural ecosystems and global economies. Climate change clearly is one of the biggest global crises of the 21st century.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) asserts that architects play a vital role in combating climate change. Buildings are major producers of carbon, so climate change poses both major obstacles and opportunities for the profession. We accept these challenges. We call on policymakers to join with us in this effort, and we uphold the following principles:
- The United States must lead the fight against climate change. The federal government must maintain America’s global leadership in the design and construction of carbon neutral buildings. Current federal policies that set goals by 2030 for carbon neutrality in federal buildings are already creating major advances in energy efficient design.
- We believe that the business case for reducing the carbon footprint of buildings is stronger than ever before. Studies show that sustainable and energy efficient buildings command rent premiums of 2 percent to 8 percent, occupancy increases of 3 percent to 10 percent and sales premiums of 3 percent to 12 percent. High performance and sustainable homes in the Washington, DC market command sales premiums of 3.5 percent. (Source: Energy Efficiency in Separate Tenant Spaces – A Feasibility Study)
Read more (The American Institute of Architects)
