Bipartisan energy efficiency bills gain traction in both the U.S. house and Senate

• Bricker & Eckler LLP


• J. Thomas Siwo and Dylan F. Borchers


• USA


• March 11 2014

On March 4, 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 2126 — a bipartisan energy bill that would establish "a new voluntary efficiency standard for tenants in commercial buildings." ¹ It passed by a vote of 375-26. The Better Buildings Act is the first energy legislation to gain House approval in more than five years.

U.S. Representatives Peter Welch (D-VT) and David McKinley (R-WV) first introduced the bill in May 2013. Among its provisions are requirements that the federal government set efficiency goals for its data centers and that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) study energy efficiency approaches for tenant-occupied spaces. ² To measure the performance of tenant spaces in commercial buildings, the bill would establish a new Tenant Star program similar to the existing Energy Star energy efficiency certification program for commercial buildings. ³

On February 27, 2014, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) reintroduced an updated version of the Shaheen-Portman Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act. ⁴ First introduced in 2011 and most recently pulled from the Senate floor in October 2013, the bill has not yet advanced out of the Senate in part due to the fact that it was "threatened with amendments defunding so-called ObamaCare or authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline." ⁵