New Energy Future News

Brad Heavner testified today on behalf of Environment America before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality on the global warming emissions reductions available through building energy efficiency.

Buildings account for roughly 50% of America’s energy use – almost 10% of the world’s energy use – and there are simple policy steps that could be taken to make them more efficient, according to a white paper that Environment America released recently. 

Per unit of economic output, America’s economy is twice as energy-intensive as Germany’s and nearly three times as energy-intensive as Japan’s. An enormous amount of that energy is wasted in buildings, and capturing this energy is vital in order to set America on a new path to a cleaner, smarter energy future. With global warming looming and energy prices soaring, we need to be doing all we can to save energy.

Preventing wasted energy in buildings is likely the biggest opportunity to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, especially in the short term.  America’s global warming emissions could be cut 9 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 through simple building efficiency measures.

We have the technology to completely eliminate energy use in the building sector.  Homes and businesses already exist that use a fraction of the energy of typical buildings.  Some also generate all the energy needed to power them on-site, using renewable sources such as wind and solar power.  These zero energy buildings could be the standard for all new buildings by 2030.

To get there, we need to do everything we can to ramp up building efficiency and encourage on-site renewable energy. We need to improve and enforce building energy codes and adopt policies that encourage building far beyond code and retrofitting existing buildings. We should design polices that encourage on site renewable power and set a national goal that all new buildings be zero net energy by 2030.

There is a major opportunity in September when officials from towns and cities across the country come together to update the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) – the national model code most states use to shape how new homes are constructed.  The officials could vote to improve the model code to require new homes to be 30 percent more energy efficient.  

This little known process represents one of the most important energy votes of the year. Mayors who send their officials to vote for the 30% Solution won’t just be saving their citizens money, they’ll be setting the stage for the entire nation to dramatically reduce the energy we waste and global warming emissions.

Congress is currently sitting on two decisions that could have a profound impact on our clean energy economy by helping to fund energy efficient building projects:

·    Production and investment tax credits that have helped fuel America’s clean energy boom, including investments in energy efficiency, are set to expire at the end of this year. The clean energy incentives have passed the U.S. House numerous times, but have continually been blocked by Senate Republicans.  

·        The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program was established by the “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007”, but Congress has yet to allocate the $2 billion per year to fund the program.  The program was designed to help America’s local governments increase their energy independence by reducing the amount of energy they use and could be used to assist communities to promote high performance, energy efficient buildings. 

Gas and electricity bills could be obsolete by the middle of this century, and we can start by taking advantage of the large savings that are already at our fingertips. We need to make a commitment and work towards that vision of clean, efficient, homegrown energy by making the most of the opportunities in front of us right now.

Environment America’s white paper, “Building an Energy-Efficient America: Zero Energy and High Efficiency Buildings,” can be found here.