ASHRAE Government Affairs Update, 10/3/2014
Posted by admin on Oct. 6, 2014 / Government Affairs / Subscribe 0
Federal Activities
- October is National Energy Awareness Month!
- DOE Establishes ASHRAE 90.1-2013 as National Reference Standard for Commercial Building Energy Efficiency
- DOE Releases Preliminary Determination of Energy Efficiency Provisions of 2015 IECC
- U.S. and India Announce Climate Change Mitigation Agreement - Includes HFC Reduction Plans
- House and Senate Members Lead Charge to Increase Use of ESCPs/UESCs
GGAC Regional and Chapter Activities
- World Standards Day
- National Engineers Week Scheduled for Feb. 22-28, 2015
- Montgomery County, MD Benchmarking Ordinance
- Holding a "Day on the Hill" Toolkit Now Available on GGAC Webpage
Federal Activities
For additional information on federal issues, please contact Mark Ames, ASHRAE's Senior Manager of Federal Government Affairs, at [email protected].
October is National Energy Awareness Month!
October is National Energy Awareness Month, and the federal government is celebrating with a packed calendar of over 100 events, spanning a wide range of issues, including: sustainable engineering and communities, greening the federal government, climate change mitigation, energy security, and inspiring the next generation of STEM professionals.
To view the calendar please visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/national-energy-awareness-month
DOE Establishes ASHRAE 90.1-2013 as National Reference Standard for Commercial Building Energy Efficiency
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued its final/affirmative determination that ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 90.1-2013 Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings improves energy efficiency in buildings compared to the 2010 version. DOE determined that buildings built to 90.1-2013 would result in national source energy savings of approximately 8.5 percent and site energy savings of approximately 7.6 percent of commercial building energy consumption, as compared to 90.1-2010.
States have two years, from the date of this determination (9/26/2014) to review and update, as necessary the provisions of their commercial building energy codes to meet or exceed the provisions of 90.1-2013, unless DOE grants them an extension.
For states that either do not have a state commercial building energy code (i.e. they only have local building energy codes), or have a state code that does not apply to all commercial buildings, each state must review and make all reasonable efforts to update the local codes to determine whether they meet or exceed 90.1-2013.
States are also required to certify to DOE that they have reviewed and updated the provisions of their commercial building energy codes to meet or exceed 90.1-2013.
"ASHRAE is pleased with this ruling from the DOE, recognizing the energy savings measures in the standard," ASHRAE President Tom Phoenix said. "Standard 90.1 was an original cornerstone in our efforts to improve building performance, and we continue to strive to increase its efficiency in the future."
Full information on this notice is available here.
To view ASHRAE's press release, please click here.
DOE Releases Preliminary Determination of Energy Efficiency Provisions of 2015 IECC
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a preliminary determination that the 2015 version of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) would result in national source energy savings of approximately 1.03 percent, site energy savings of approximately 1.12 percent, and energy cost savings of approximately 0.90 percent of residential building energy consumption, as regulated by the IECC. Like the process for ASHRAE Standard 90.1, when DOE issues a final determination on the 2015 IECC, states will be required to certify that they have reviewed the energy efficiency provisions of their residential building codes, and made a decision to update their codes to meet or exceed the 2015 IECC.
For additional information, please click here.
U.S. and India Announce Climate Change Mitigation Agreement - Includes HFC Reduction Plans
Earlier this week President Barack Obama met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss a number of strategic and partnership agreements between the U.S. and India - including the importance of energy access and climate change mitigation.
Notably, the leaders agreed to broaden the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) through a variety of projects, including a new Energy Smart Cities Partnership that would focus on efficient urban energy infrastructure. President Obama and Prime Minister Modi also promised to set up a bilateral task force meeting prior to the next Montreal Protocol that would focus on HFCs, including safety, cost, and commercial access to new or alternative technologies to replace HFCs.
To view the Joint U.S. India Statement, which includes additional information, please click here.
House and Senate Members Lead Charge to Increase Use of ESCPs/UESCs
In late September, Representatives Peter Welch (D-VT), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Hoeven (R-ND) introduced twin bipartisan resolutions (H.Res.737, S.Res.562) supporting the federal government's increased use of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) and Utility Energy Service Contracts (UESCs) by encouraging the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to alter how they score the costs to the federal government of using ESPCs and UESCs.
ESPCs and UESCs are important tools that allow energy efficiency improvements to be made to federal buildings without adding to taxpayer costs through the use of an Energy Service Company (ESCO) - in the case of an ESPC, or a utility - in the case of an UESC, who agree to pay the upfront costs of the energy efficiency upgrades and guarantee annual energy savings. ESCPs and UESCs are financed through utility bill savings.
Although these types of contracts are effectively budget neutral, it has been CBOs practice to factor or "score" their full costs upfront as new mandatory spending, while the savings of the contracts are factored in over time in the "discretionary" category. This accounting method has created a misalignment with the reality of the contracts' nature, and how fast savings accrue, and is further exacerbated by CBOs practice of using a 10-year payback period, when these contracts can last for 25 years, and the full savings of ESPCs and UESCs are often not realized until 10 years after a project has begun. As a result of this scoring method, the federal government's increased use of ESCPs and UESCs has been limited. Although the House and Senate resolutions cannot force CBO to change its accounting methods, they do bring attention to and perhaps place pressure on CBO, especially when considering that the newly introduced resolutions have already accrued a combined 47 bipartisan cosponsors from Members of Congress.
To view a useful primer on the CBO scoring issue that goes into greater depth, please visit http://ase.org/blog/primer-espcs-uescs-and-cbo-scoring-problem
GGAC Regional and Chapter Activities
For additional information on state, local, and international government affairs, please contact Jim Scarborough, ASHRAE's Manager of Grassroots Government Affairs, at [email protected].
World Standards Day
Since 1970, World Standards Day has been observed as a way to raise awareness of the importance of global standardization to the world economy and to promote its role in helping meet the needs of business, industry, government, and consumers worldwide. World Standards Day also recognizes the thousands of people around the world who participate in standardization activities. While October 3rd has been chosen as World Standards Day by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to commemorate the anniversary of the first meeting of delegates from 25 countries that resulted in the formation of ISO, many events take place annually on or around 14 October.
For more information on World Standards Day, please click here.
National Engineers Week Scheduled for Feb. 22-28, 2015
National Engineers Week (EWeek) has been scheduled for February 22-28, 2015. Founded in 1951, EWeek is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of, and interest in, engineering and technology careers. EWeek is a formal coalition of more than 70 engineering, education and cultural societies, and more than 50 corporations and government agencies dedicated to raising public awareness of engineers' positive contributions to quality of life. EWeek urges recognition among parents, teachers and students of the importance of a technical education and a high level of math, science and technology literacy, and motivates youth to pursue engineering careers in order to provide a diverse and vigorous engineering workforce.
ASHRAE once again encourages its Chapters and members to promote EWeek by obtaining proclamations from federal, state and local governments recognizing this annual event. A draft proclamation will be posted within the next two weeks on the GGAC webpage.
Additional information on EWeek is available at http://www.discovere.org/our-programs/engineers-week.
Montgomery County, MD Benchmarking Ordinance
Montgomery County is the first county in the United States to implement building energy usage and disclosure regulations. In passing the regulation, Montgomery County joins jurisdictions such as the State of California, State of Washington and the cities of Austin, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, in implementing regulation to address energy and water use in buildings.
The regulation applies to all government buildings and private buildings 50,000 square feet and larger. The ordinance requires county buildings to begin reporting in 2015 and commercial buildings by December 2016.
As part of this effort, a benchmarking work group has been established to address how private buildings will comply with the new ordinance. Attending the first work group meeting on September 16, 2014 was GGAC Regional Vice Chair Dunstan Macauley along with other ASHRAE members. Work group subcommittees were created and assignments were made.
It should be noted that, while the legislation in Montgomery County recognizes Portfolio Manager, which is free, other assessment tools such as ASHRAE's Building Energy Quotient (bEQ) building energy labeling program may be used in addition at the discretion of the building owner.
To obtain more information on the regulation, contact:
Michelle Vigen
Senior Energy Planner
Department of Environmental Protection
240-777-7749
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