building codes
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Overcoming the roadblocks to democratizing the electricity system – part 5 of 5
A serialized version of ILSR‘s new report, Democratizing the Electricity System, Part 4 of 5. Click for Part 1 or Part 2 or Part 3 or Part 4. Overcoming the Roadblocks to Democratizing the Electricity System The electricity grid system has become host to a distributed generation phenomenon that has developed in a largely hostile […]
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How the cap-and-trade controversy could lead to good clean energy policy
On Wednesday, bipartisan groups of legislators from both houses of Congress joined together to support a bill: the Rural Energy Savings Program, which would make low-interest loans available to rural homeowners to fund efficiency retrofits. The loans would come with no upfront cost and would be paid off with a small surcharge on utility bills […]
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New air conditioning and furnace standards mean big savings
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other efficiency groups released a negotiated agreement with manufacturers of residential air conditioners and furnaces yesterday, marking the end of a journey to come to consensus that lasted many months. I negotiated on NRDC’s behalf and we will now take this agreement to both Congress and the Department […]
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Strategies to promote energy efficiency in buildings
My colleague Nick Zigelbaum posted this on his NRDC Switchboard blog. Nick is NRDC’s lead advocate on California building policy and has worked extensively on efficiency policies in China. He’s a fellow engineer and his blog is a great resource for thoughts on California and all things building related. I developed the following graphic for a […]
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Alaska legislature rebukes Palin, but Alaskans may still lose
The odd saga of stimulus money and the state of Alaska drew to a close yesterday, ending in what should have been a big win for efficiency, as the state legislature voted to override former-Governor Palin’s veto of efficiency money. Unfortunately, this may be a victory in name only, as the Department of Energy has […]
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Shining the light on efficiency lies
I blogged last month on the deliberate misinformation campaign that the enemies of energy efficiency used to weaken several key policies in ACES, costing us all money. In the last couple weeks several news stories have continued to shine a light on the happenings. First, the Daily Green and Factcheck.org note where Representative Boehner and […]
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Oh, those sexy building codes: More powerful than 100 nuclear plants
Building energy codes are the key.Are 100 new nuclear plants the solution to our climate troubles? I asked that question in a post last week. The answer lies buried deep within the 1,428-page Waxman-Markey climate bill (H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act), passed by the House and now under consideration in the […]
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DOE sending out Recovery Act funding as states promise efficiency improvements
DOE has been rolling through approvals of state energy plans and releasing huge chunks of the $3.1 billion available through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for State Energy Programs. All told, 29 states and several territories have received approval and substantial portions of their funding. This funding will be used for weatherizing low income […]
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The case for a national building energy code
Recently, there has been a good deal of media attention given to building energy codes, generally and specifically, the codes provision of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), both good and bad. A couple of these articles piqued my interest by asking if building energy codes should be a matter of federal importance […]
