House overwhelmingly passes energy efficiency legislation

[bananas]

Source: Utility Dive

Dive Brief:

• The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan energy bill that will establish a new voluntary efficiency standard for tenants in commercial buildings. The measure, H.R. 2126, also known as Tenant Star, represents the first energy legislation approved by the House in more than five years.
  
  
• The measure, sponsored by Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.), also requires the federal government to set efficiency goals for its data centers, and buildings leased by the federal government to disclose energy use data. In addition, it removes regulatory barriers to production of large-scale water heaters, which act as residential storage devices and allow utilities to curb peak demand.
  
  
• The bill, known as “Tenant Star,” was the result of months of negotiations between Welch, McKinley, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Fred Upton and Ranking Democrat Henry Waxman.
  

Dive Insight:

• The 375-26 House vote for the efficiency bill is striking given the years of legislative inaction on energy measures. Stay tuned to see whether approval of the House bill will give a push to a bill sponsored by Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH), that has languished in the Senate, and whether the House and Senate bills will be reconciled.
  

Recommended Reading:

• Vt. Digger: House Passes Welch Bipartisan Efficiency Legislation
  

Read more: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/house-overwhelmingly-passes-energy-efficiency-legislation/235667/

[freshwest]

1. Will there be a rider approving Keystone or personhood? I don't trust the GOP, especially Cantor.

Otherwise, good deal. My city has already implemented this here and our utility company came and installed bulbs and other items for free. We voted on it and it was done. We also support alternative energy sources for our electric utility.

[groundloop]

2. VOLUNTARY energy standards

In terms of energy regulations, in my opinion VOLUNTARY = MEANINGLESS.

[valerief]

3. That's what jumped out at me, too. They're supposed to be passing laws, not suggestions. nt

[bananas]

4. The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act has four key components

http://vtdigger.org/2014/03/05/house-passes-welch-bipartisan-energy-efficiency-legislation/

News Release — Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt.

<snip>

The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act has four key components:

· Establishes energy efficiency best practices for commercial tenants renting space in commercial buildings and creates a new TENANT STAR certification program. TENANT STAR will be modeled after the existing ENERGY STAR program which certifies commercial buildings as highly energy efficient.

· Requires federal agencies to implement strategies to increase the efficiency of energy consuming data centers operated by the federal government.

· Removes a regulatory barrier to the manufacture of large scale water heaters, which act as residential energy storage devices and allow utilities to curb energy demand during peak hours.

· Establishes a benchmarking and disclosure process for energy consumed in federally leased buildings.

<snip>

The voluntary program is the first item.

[valerief]

5. Thanks! nt

[fasttense]

7. Energy Star is a useless program

1st it is totally and completely voluntary. 2nd the EPA doesn't do the testing, instead outside contractors who have been known to take bribes do the testing. The so called energy savings results of these outside contractor have NOT been reproducible of verifiable. 3rd If the sample you give to your contractor for testing for energy efficiency is just 1% lower than the "average" then you get a gold star. But some of the "averages" are so high that almost any item tested gets a gold star.

This is a feel good program with no teeth.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2008/2008-12-31-092.asp

http://applianceadvisor.com/open-letter-steven-chu-obamas-choice-head-doe0099/706

[Orsino]

6. Voluntary standards are just another sort of Congressional inaction. n/t