ASHRAE Journal - April 2011 - 74

washington report

Buildings & the Budget
T
By Mark ames

urn on the news and you will hear that Congress is setting the nation’s annual budget, and gearing

Better Buildings Initiative Proposal
proposed goals • Achieve a 20% improvement in the energy efficiency of commercial buildings by 2020. • Reduce companies’ and business owners’ energy bills by about $40 billion per year. • Save energy by reforming outdated incentives and challenging the private sector to act. Specific Proposed Initiatives • Tax incentives. Streamline the 179D commercial building tax deduction for tax year 2011 and restructure the tax incentive for tax year 2012. • Financing. Increase and accelerate financing opportunities for commercial and public building energy improvements through existing SBA loan program and proposed DOE loan guarantee program. • Grants. $100 million “Race to the Green” program. Give competitive grants to state and local governments to streamline and update codes and regulations and to adopt policies and programs to attract private-sector investment in building retrofits. • Challenge. “Better Buildings Challenge” program. Challenge CEOs and university presidents to systematically upgrade their facilities for improved efficiency. • Workforce. Improve and expand workforce training and pilot a buildings extension service.
Source: The White House Office of Media Affairs

up to determine how much taxpayer dollars federal programs will receive for the coming fiscal year. This is an exciting time, as the results of the 2010 elections and the manifestation of the voters’ will is playing out.
President Obama announced his Better Buildings Initiative proposal at Penn State University, which reflects the federal government’s focus on the building industry as a source for job creation, economic revitalization and innovation. In his budget request to Congress, the President also requested a 114.9% increase in funding for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building Technologies Program (BTP). This potential increase is significant, given that the President has proposed a five-year overall freeze on domestic non-security spending, as well as funding cuts in several areas. The mission of BTP, according to the Department of Energy’s 2012 Budget Request, “is to develop and promote efficient, environmentally friendly, and affordable technologies, systems and practices for the nation’s residential and commercial buildings that will lower greenhouse gas emissions, foster economic prosperity and increase national energy security while providing the energyrelated services and performance expected from our buildings.” If approved, these new funds would be used to support the President’s proposed Better Buildings Initiative, and “to bring additional cost savings to consumer appliance standards, accelerated development and adoption of new building codes, development of new information tools on building energy efficiency, building energy scores, innovative financing, support for building retrofits and other methods to accelerate adoption of new efficiency technologies and practices.” The President’s proposal also asks Congress to more than double energy efficiency research, development, and deployment, and to add three new Energy Innovation Hubs, which would focus on rare earth materials, battery and energy storage, and Smart Grid technologies and systems. Throughout April hearings will continue in the House and Senate that provide members of Congress with a forum to question administration officials why various programs, such as BTP, should receive their requested increases.
74 ASHRAE Journal

From these discussions, the annual budget resolution and funding bills will be crafted. Those who closely watch this will see it is often a rough-hewn process. Because of the general lack of reliable data on the performance of federal programs, the process is often filled with educated guesses on which programs would benefit most from continued or increased taxpayer support. If members of Congress are unable to agree on spending priorities before the new fiscal year begins in October, Congress may be forced to fall back on a continuing resolution (CR), giving policy makers more time to work out differences. Continuing resolutions generally extend funding for federal programs at the past fiscal years’ levels, although in some cases CRs also contain targeted program cuts. Whatever the outcome, all of this will serve as prelude to the House, Senate, and presidential election campaigns, which will soon begin anew. Mark Ames is ASHRAE’s manager of government affairs, mames@ashrae.org and www.ashrae.org/advocacy.
ashrae.org April 2011

ASHRAE Journal - April 2011

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