Over the course of the Obama administration we have heard
how the President is working to ensure a better and cleaner energy future
for America. Now that we are about to embark on the last part of his
presidential term we are seeing the wheels beginning to turn. In the past 3 months we
have seen much progress in when it comes to bipartisan bills making their way through
the House and the Senate, but what do these bills actually mean for the energy efficiency
industry in the long run?
One of the first bills passed this year was S.535.
This bill was brought to the floor by Senators Portman and Shaheen and includes
three energy efficiency provisions. Those provisions include promoting
commercial energy benchmarking and disclosure, a Tenant Star program as well as
improved efficiency standards for grid connected water heaters. The first
provision of promoting commercial energy benchmarking goes hand in hand with
what the California Energy Commission, CEC, is already working toward in the
state with the passage of AB 1103.
Assembly Bill 1103 focusing on having all commercial buildings within the state
of California are benchmarked if the building owner intends to lease, sale or lend.
The second provisions of launching a Tenant Star program can piggy back off of
the EPA’s Energy Star Certification of commercial buildings. This program only
differs by reaching out to multi-family units to show how they can improve
their energy efficiency, since this has been a neglected sector on energy
savings. All items stated in the bill are building blocks for programs that are
already being implemented in different parts of the US. Though this bill does
not have specifics on energy efficiency it focuses on the ground floor of
getting others interested in the topic.
The second bill is one that has only been introduced to
Congress S.
720.[i]
This bill focuses on innovative energy savings for American manufacturers. The
meat of this bill will have the Department of Energy (DOE) working to develop
smart manufacturing plans that can assist small and medium sized manufacturers.
Items that fall under smart manufacturing for this bill are information and
communications technology that help achieve superior control and productivity.
With increased control and productivity there are a lot of energy savings to be
had for manufacturers. Studies have shown that the manufacturing industry can shave off as
much as $18 billion in energy costs by reducing energy use by just 10%.[ii]
Too many this read may seem like a boring law class on bills
going through the house and senate. But to those that are true energy efficiency
fans we are applauding our government for taking notice of the importance of
energy efficiency. We hope that this is a start to a greener energy future!
[i] “On
the road to bipartisan energy efficiency legislation,” Apr., 30, 2015, http://aceee.org/blog/2015/04/road-bipartisan-energy-efficiency
[ii] “Energy
Efficiency Toolkit For Manufacturers,” Apr., 30, 2015, http://www.energy.ca.gov/process/pubs/toolkit.pdf