All aboard! Governments race to conserve By ALEXANDER SOULE

All aboard!
Governments race to conserve

The U.S. Senate is considering a new round of tax incentives to encourage the production and use of clean and renewable energy.

In August, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of passing a Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax bill, which would improve energy requirements of building codes; update energy standards for lights and appliances; and encourage the use of combined heat and power systems in industry.

Congress hopes this month to mash the legislation into the Senate’s Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection and Energy Efficiency bill approved in July, which, among other goals, would increase the average fuel economy standards of vehicles.

The House bill would aim to reduce energy use in new buildings 30 percent by 2010, and 50 percent by 2020, through a mix of tax incentives and funding for states that adjust their building codes.

With the tri-state area already labeled one of the worst electricity congestion points in the nation, state lawmakers and proponents are ahead of the curve. With Vermont and California, Connecticut topped an energy-efficiency policy scorecard published in June by the Washington, D.C.-based American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The ACEEE ranked New York seventh and New Jersey eighth on the scorecard, which included criteria for building energy codes; tax incentives; fuel-economy standards; and appliance efficiency.

New Yorkers spent $57 billion in 2005 on energy, 19 percent more than the previous year, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Commercial and industrial companies account for 35 percent of energy use, with the transportation sector consuming 38 percent and residences the remaining 27 percent.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer this year committed the state to reduce electricity demand 15 percent by 2015. He wants policies to encourage the use of plants that generate power from clean, renewable sources and proposed an updated energy building code.

In Connecticut, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a bill this past summer that broadens the state’s “green building” requirements. Renovations costing more than $2 million on state buildings must meet environmental guidelines, in addition to state buildings constructed at a cost of $5 million or more.

Last month, ACEEE lauded three Connecticut commercial programs as exemplary: the Small Business Energy Advantage Program, which provides incentives for lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and refrigeration systems; the Energy Conscious Blueprint Program, which encourages businesses to install energy-efficiency systems during building construction; and the Energy Opportunities Program, which pays incentives for various efficiency measures.

On the corporate front, at a July conference in White Plains ACEEE cited Hartford-based United Technologies Corp. for one of its three Champions of Energy Efficiency awards, recognizing UTC’s 19 percent reduction in energy consumption between 1997 and 2006. To date, green construction has been dominated by large institutions and corporations that occupy the facilities they build. For instance, after Morgan Stanley established a large facility in Purchase, it installed the tri-state area’s largest air conditioning system that draws cool air from an ice-storage facility.

For small businesses sweating out their budgets, any investment in energy efficiency systems is a comparatively large investment. Federal policymakers hope to create incentives for builders that must foot the upfront costs of designing environmentally friendly buildings, then rent to tenants at rates that are competitive in the marketplace.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) received ACEEE plaudits as for its New York Energy $mart Small Commercial Lighting Program, which provides incentives to builders to include efficient lighting in construction and renovation projects of up to 25,000 square feet, as well as for its FlexTech program in which the state foots part of the cost of energy audits of existing buildings.

As part of its Energy Efficiency Services program, New York has long offered facility studies to find ways to increase energy efficiency; NYSERDA recently upgraded the program to focus on specific industrial sectors, including commercial real estate, industrial and hospitality industries.

On late December, NYSERDA plans to issue details of a “PowerNaturally” solar-incentive program.

NYSERDA devotes about $6 million of its annual $400 million budget to research ways to promote the construction of “green buildings,” a support level exceeded by only seven other federal and state agencies.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) estimates the federal government spends nearly $200 million annually on building environment research, most of it devoted to energy, atmosphere and materials.

USGBC administers the federal Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, which certifies building facilities as energy efficient.

In 2006, the Tivoli-based Common Fire Foundation became New York’s first “platinum” LEED-certified building, the highest tier in USGBC rating system. USGBC this year dubbed the housing cooperative the greenest building in the eastern United States.

In White Plains, a New York Power Authority property is one of a dozen projects certified under LEED guidelines for “gold” status. In Connecticut, two Yale University projects have achieved the gold certification.

While just 32 projects in New York and 10 in Connecticut have achieved at least the base LEED certification, as of late October more than 350 builders in the two states had registered for their projects to be certified under LEED guidelines. Those projects include specific floors of corporate offices occupied by General Electric Co. in Norwalk and UBS in Stamford.

Norwalk-based GE Real Estate is a sponsor of USGBC’s annual “Greenbuild” conference this week in Chicago, with 18,000 building industry professionals expected to attend.