Green Building Law Blog : Green Building Lawyer & Attorney : Shari Shapiro: Calliope Communications, LLC

Contrary to common belief that nothing is really happening in green building at the Congressional level these days, I provide the following two counterexamples. Of course, neither of these efforts are designed to promote energy efficiency or green building, but that doesn't mean that nothing is happening.

 An amendment to the Senate Appropriations Bill for Energy and Water introduced by Senators Wicker (R-MS), Boozman (R-AR), and Inhofe (R-OK) would essentially eliminate the use of LEED and Energy Star for DOE green building programs.  According to the NRDC:  

This rider would prevent the Department of Energy (DOE) from using strong green building energy rating standards. The amendment limits DOE to using only green building standards that are developed and approved in accordance with American National Standards Institute (ANSI) rules. Such a requirement would effectively limit DOE to using only the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Green Globes building standards.The amendment would disallow the use of many other rating systems, including LEED, EPA Energy Star Portfolio Manager, and EPA Energy Star Homes, which have substantially increased the number of environmentally-friendly buildings in our country.
 

In other news, Rep. Charles J. Fleischmann [R-TN-3] introduced a bill yesterday in the House H.R.3441 to repeal the Department of Energy's home weatherization assistance program.  The DOE weatherization assistance program provides funding to states to weatherize the homes of low income households to make them more energy efficient.  According to the WAP website:

During the past 33 years, WAP has provided weatherization services to more than 6.4 million low-income households. Families receiving weatherization services see their annual energy bills reduced by an average of about $437, depending on fuel prices.  

According to a recent release from the National Association for State Community Services Programs, the WAP received $5b in funding from ARRA, which weatherized 534,208 low-income houses through August 2011. This made the WAP seventh out of approximately 200 federal programs funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) in jobs created or retained, with 14,090 jobs  for the third quarter beginning July 1 and ending September 30, 2011.

The bill is not yet available from the GPO, but it can be followed on Thomas through this link. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

As I mentioned in a previous post, I led a study this summer analyzing the legal policy and process factors impacting commercial building energy efficiency in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  The study was commissioned by the Department of Energy-led Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings (GPIC). The results of the study and a presentation I gave on the findings are now available through the GPIC site. 

The purpose of the study was to identify the most significant policy and legal-related process factors effecting energy efficiency (“EE”) in commercial buildings in the Greater Philadelphia area. The research focused on policy areas such as the structure of government, specific laws and regulations, government funded or mandated incentives and other financing mechanisms. Processes included legal-related factors impacting EE transactions, such as contracts, leases, public bidding requirements, and accounting standards.

The study revealed that between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the state and local governments have implemented almost all of the policy levers that advocates have called for to increase EE. For example, both Pennsylvania and New Jersey have up-to-date building and energy codes. The states have invested hundreds of millions of dollars collected from utility ratepayers in EE incentive programs. New Jersey has experimented with alternative rate structures for utilities. Therefore, the primary recommendation of this study is to conduct further legal and market research to compare the effectiveness of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania regulatory initiatives designed to address the efficiency gap, including the incentive and ratemaking efforts.

Although many policies are in place to promote EE, direct and indirect barriers still exist. For example, until August 2011, New Jersey did not allow sub-metering of multi-family residential buildings, creating a direct barrier to energy management. The indirect barriers are numerous, and include even the structure of government itself. For example, the multitude of governing bodies and the often inconsistent policy goals of each result in a fragmented and sometimes contradictory set of policies regarding EE.

Finally, the study found that market processes necessary for smooth transactions and full valuation of EE construction are immature, increasing transaction costs and making EE investments less valuable. For example, appraisers of EE buildings frequently ignore or undervalue EE upgrades. As a result, owners may not recoup their investment at the sale of the property, or their cost to borrow against their assets may be compromised.
 

 I welcome feedback from the GBLB community on the findings. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link