Green Building Law Blog

Does Building Star Shine?

Last week, Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon introduced S.B. 3079, the Building Star Bill, to:

To assist in the creation of new jobs by providing financial incentives for owners of commercial buildings and multifamily residential buildings to retrofit their buildings with energy efficient building equipment and materials and for other purposes.

In essence, Building Star provides rebates for retrofitting commercial and multifamily buildings in existence as of December 31, 2009 with energy efficient components, like insulation, window, doors, HVAC equipment, etc.  the rebates are structured as follows:

  • For energy audits and commussioning studies--$.05 per square foot of audited or commissioned space or 50% of the cost of the audit or commissioning study.
  • For energy efficient building operations and maintenance training--$2000 per individual trained and certified
  • For service on space heating equipment--$100 per unit serviced
  • For service on cooling systems--$2 per ton of namepate cpacity of the serviced cooling system and 50% of the total service cost
  • For installation of qualified energy monitoring and management systems--the lesser of $.45 per square foot of building space covered by the system or 50% of total installation and commissioning costs
  • For upgrades of qualified energy monitoring and management systems--the lesser of $.15 per square foot of building space covered by the system or 50% of total installation and commissioning costs
  • For HVAC testing, balancing and duct sealing--$.75 per square foot of duct surface tested, balanced and if necessary, sealed

The Building Star incentives can be combined with other incentives, like the existing deductions for energy efficient buildings. 

The Building Star program also provides for a loan program administered by the states to provide loans for energy efficiency upgrades.

So the question becomes, will this incentive program be significant enough to cause building owners to invest in these energy efficiency measures. 

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Shari Shapiro, Esq., LEED AP
Suite 300, Liberty View, 457 Haddonfield Road, P.O. Box 5459
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002-2220,