U.S. cities, states require large buildings cite energy use

Wonder how high the utility bills will be at that
apartment you like? To help consumers and spur efficiency, U.S. states and
cities are beginning this year to require that commercial buildings measure and
disclose their energy use.

• The new rules, which generally exempt small businesses, are
  expected to shame building owners into upgrades that will save energy and create
  jobs. They’re akin to nutritional labels on food, Energy Star
  ratings on appliances and miles-per-gallon stickers on vehicles. They won’t
  specify utility costs but will show a building’s relative efficiency, measured
  in energy use per square foot for apartments.

Today is the deadline for 16,000 large buildings in New
York City— representing half of its interior space — to report how much
energy they used in the past year or face $500 quarterly fines. The city will
post the data on a public website next year.
Similar requirements — the first of which took effect in
January in Washington state — begin in Seattle, San
Francisco and Washington, D.C., in October and in Austin next June and
throughout California as early as next year. Half a dozen other states are
considering such rules.
“They give consumers — tenants and investors — access to
information they’ve not had previously,” says Andrew Burr, author of a report on
them by the Institute for Market Transformation, a Washington-based non-profit
promoting energy efficiency.
“It’s hard to overstate how significant this is,” says
Roger Platt of the private U.S.
Green Building Council, adding many buildings don’t track energy usage.
“It’s like a 12-step program. You first have to admit you have a problem.”
Some oppose the mandatory route. “This scarlet letter, fear
factor approach … stigmatizes” less efficient properties and could lower their
property values, says Austin Perez of the National Association of Realtors. He
says tax credits and loan guarantees are a better way to prod owners to upgrade
buildings.
The Department of Energy’s Kathleen Hogan says DOE plans
next spring to begin testing a voluntary program to rate the energy efficiency
of commercial buildings, similar to a pilot program it finished in June for
rating homes.
Seattle, which aims to reduce energy use 20% by 2020, opted
for mandatory reporting, because “voluntary programs weren’t getting us there
fast enough,” says Jayson Antonoff, an energy adviser for the city. He says 860
buildings with more than 50,000 square feet must report by Oct. 1 and another
8,000 buildings with more than 10,000 square feet by April 1.
Nationwide, he says, “the number of buildings that will be
benchmarked (for energy) is going to explode.”

This is a great way to see where your money is being put to use in your city. To see the amount of energy that larger corporation, and apartment units are using. This is an opportunity to see where cost can be cut to save money for both the consumers and the investors in your area. to help the community to become more green.


Thoughts?