A majority of Americans across the political spectrum believe states are responsible for addressing climate change in the absence of federal policy, according to a new survey by University of Michigan researchers.
The National Surveys on Energy and Environment track public opinion on climate change and energy policy. This update gives a snapshot from this spring—after President Trump began eliminating former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and just before Trump’s June announcement to withdraw from the international Paris climate agreement.
“Prior to the Obama administration, the states were really driving climate policy, and Americans say if the federal government doesn’t want to act on climate anymore, then states should be back in the driver’s seat,” said Sarah Mills, a research fellow at the U-M Ford School of Public Policy and co-author of the study. “States are where we have historically made progress and where we can continue to make progress in the future.”
Mills says there’s strong support from all political parties for specific policy steps states have taken in the past—and not just among those who believe in climate change.
Read more (Michigan News)
Governor Terry McAuliffe today announced that the Commonwealth of Virginia and 12 other states (to date) have formed an alliance to move forward on the principles of the Paris Climate Agreement, despite President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the federal government from the accord.
This decision to join the U.S. Climate Alliance follows the Governor’s signature of an Executive Directive initiating the process to cap carbon emissions by electric utilities in Virginia, the first action of its kind since President Trump took office.
“As the first state in the Trump era to take executive action to limit carbon emissions and create clean energy jobs, Virginia is proud to join the U.S. Climate Alliance,” said Governor McAuliffe. “President Trump’s announcement to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement does not speak for the states and cities that are committed to fighting climate change and paving the way for a new energy economy. If the federal government insists on abdicating leadership on this issue, it will be up to the American people to step forward – and in Virginia we are doing just that.”
In addition to Virginia, the U.S. Climate Alliance is composed of the states of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
Read the full press release.
As President Trump retreats from his predecessor’s efforts to tackle climate change, it is more important than ever that our cities and states develop tools to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for the planet’s warming. In New York City, this means first and foremost cutting energy use in buildings, which accounts for over two-thirds of the city’s emissions.
A simple tweak to an existing law could help the city reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and create a template for the rest of the country to follow. Local Law 84, enacted in 2009, obligates the city’s largest buildings to report how much energy they consume each year. Participating buildings then receive scores indicating how efficient (or inefficient) they are compared to similar buildings.
But almost no one sees the data. The ratings are posted on a government website that few people know about and are charted on a 100-point scale that is difficult to interpret. Seven years into the program, even many experienced real estate brokers are unaware the data exists.
Read more (New York Times)
Here’s a fact I bet you didn’t know: in 2015, energy efficiency saved more electricity than was produced by every type of electricity resource in our country but for coal and natural gas. Hydro, renewables, even nuclear—energy efficiency saved more than each of them produced.
That is incredible. It also means that energy efficiency came through as the third-largest electricity resource in the United States that year.
When it comes to clean energy, we spend a lot of our time talking about the tremendous benefits and abilities of resources like wind and solar. But do you know the very cleanest energy resource we have? That would be the one that helps us never call upon an electron at all.
Over the past few decades, energy efficiency has slowly but steadily helped us make better use of the energy we consume for all types of activities, from heating and cooling to lighting and transportation. Everybody has benefited as a result, so it makes sense to keep pushing forward, right?
Read more (Union of Concerned Scientists)
What’s not to like about energy efficiency? It saves consumers money, supports millions of jobs, encourages businesses to innovate, and benefits the environment. In fact, becoming more energy efficient is the cheapest and fastest way to cut energy bills and carbon pollution.
Yet while energy efficiency—also known as optimizing our energy use or not wasting energy—is one of America’s most successful energy policies, it faces an unprecedented threat from President Trump and some fellow Republicans in Congress.
True, any policies that smack of “clean” (air, water, energy) are under threat in the Trump era. What makes the multi-front assault on energy efficiency surprising is that it could dismantle programs—such as ENERGY STAR®—that have long enjoyed support not only from both sides of the aisle, but also the private sector and the public at large. More than three-quarters of Trump supporters expressed support in a 2016 post-election survey for policies that require manufacturers to make appliances and equipment more energy efficient.
Read more (National Resource Defense Council)
Not long ago in the southwest of England, a local community set out to replace a 1960s-vintage school with a new building using triple-pane windows and super-insulated walls to achieve the highest possible energy efficiency. The new school proudly opened on the same site as the old one, with the same number of students, and the same head person—and was soon burning more energy in a month than the old building had in a year.
The underfloor heating system in the new building was so badly designed that the windows automatically opened to dump heat several times a day even in winter. A camera in the parking lot somehow got wired as if it were a thermal sensor, and put out a call for energy any time anything passed in front of the lens. It was “a catalogue of disasters,” according to David Coley, a University of Bath specialist who came in to investigate.
Many of the disasters were traceable to the building energy model, a software simulation of energy use that is a critical step in designing any building intended to be green. Among other errors, the designers had extrapolated their plan from a simplified model of an isolated classroom set in a flat landscape, with full sun for much of the day. That dictated window tinting and shading to reduce solar gain. Nobody seems to have noticed that the new school actually stood in a valley surrounded by shade trees and needed all the solar gain it could get. The classrooms were so dark the lights had to be on all day.
It was an extreme case. But it was also a good example, according to Coley, of how overly optimistic energy modeling helps cause the “energy performance gap,” a problem that has become frustratingly familiar in green building projects. The performance gap refers to the failure of energy improvements, often undertaken at great expense, to deliver some (or occasionally all) of the promised savings. A study last year of refurbished apartment buildings in Germany, for instance, found that they missed the predicted energy savings by anywhere from 5 to 28 percent. In Britain, an evaluation of 50 “leading-edge modern buildings,” from supermarkets to health care centers, reported that they “were routinely using up to 3.5 times more energy than their design had allowed for” — and producing on average 3.8 times the predicted carbon emissions.
Read more. (Yale)
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.)
Business Gold Member
As told at the Spring 2017 VAEEC Meeting Member Round Robin.
Community Housing Partners Energy Solutions was called in to address the root causes of moisture issues in newly renovated energy efficient Earthcraft Virginia certified properties. CHP identified multiple contributing factors including mechanical design, lack of commissioning, knowledge by trades, and lack of education of residents and property maintenance employees. This issue has caused vacancies due to IAQ issues and lack of trust. The greatest issue CHP faced in addressing these issues was resistance to change. Despite the challenge, there are huge possibilities, as CHP tightens buildings they must make sure it is done correctly in both design and construction, as well as commissioning and education of the residents and maintenance technicians. If they don’t get it right, they could generate lack of faith or trust in building science and energy efficiency. Their next step is to develop a holistic system-wide approach for their development process, incorporating these new elements.
Individual Member
As told at the Spring 2017 VAEEC Meeting Member Round Robin.
With their client, Abacus Property Solutions won an Enterprise Grant to develop an energy strategy focused on their D.C. affordable housing portfolio. In Phase I of the grant, Abacus developed comprehensive recommendations on how to increase energy and water efficiency and identified ways to finance these upgrades using PACE, weatherization grants, solar incentives, and third party financing. In Phase II, they are implementing these recommendations, and are also training residents and staff on how to maintain savings through operational and behavioral changes. A problem Abacus faced was ensuring the property owner understood their energy and water consumption in order to reduce utility and operational costs, which would benefit both the landlord and tenants.
The implementation of these recommendations will result in lower costs, which can be used to support their tenant needs. Like with many projects of this type, there was a lack of data – common with growing companies that buy or retrofit existing buildings. This project points again to the value of tenant-level data to make the business case for energy efficiency. The ability to benchmark their building with aggregate tenant data is very important in efforts to improve the performance of their portfolio. The next step for Abacus is to open up these services to similar types of building owners in Virginia, where they can help low-income residents. Abby says the best way to move forward with these programs for VAEEC members is to evaluate early on the obstacles in obtaining good quality data – through software, knowledgeable maintenance staff, etc. This project points again to the value of tenant-level data to make the business case for energy efficiency. The ability to benchmark their building with aggregate tenant data is very important in efforts to improve the performance of their portfolio. The next step for Abacus is to open up these services to similar types of building owners in Virginia, where they can help low-income residents. Abby says the best way to move forward with these programs for VAEEC members is to evaluate early on the obstacles in obtaining good quality data – through software, knowledgeable maintenance staff, etc.
Business Gold Member
As told at the Spring 2017 VAEEC Meeting Member Round Robin.
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative believes that providing tools to help its members easily manage their accounts and energy use is crucial to providing excellent service. Over the past year, REC worked to transition to a new customer information system and online account experience— MyREC SmartHub. The online portal is now available to all members using a computer or using the app on mobile devices. One key component is the My Usage tool, which provides members access to hourly, monthly and annual energy use information. The goal is to help members understand how they use electricity and how to use it efficiently.
REC saw the opportunity to create a tool that shares and uses the information they are capable of providing to their members. Making the tool available to members quickly was a challenge, as prior to the MyREC SmartHub members had to access several separate tools. The goal was to put everything in one portal, which took over a year to implement. However, as REC communications specialist Casey Hollins says, “it was well worth the work employees put into it.” REC’s next step will be to continue to cultivate an understanding of energy use by raising awareness of this new, free tool available to their members. The goal is for the vast majority of members to use this tool to monitor and stay informed about their energy use. REC offers this piece of advice to other VAEEC members looking to create similarly successful programs: Listen to your customers. Find solutions to not only meet but to also exceed their expectations.
