A New Year's Policy Resolution: Improving Federal Energy Efficiency with GELAT

While Congress has been in recess, the Alliance Policy Team has been busily preparing for the next Administration and the 111th Congress. Among its many transition planning activities is continued support of the Government Energy Leadership Action Team (GELAT), which was created in 2007 by the Alliance and several energy services companies interested in improving energy efficiency within the operations of the federal government, which is currently the largest consumer of energy services in the world.

GELAT's first major accomplishment was the inclusion of Section 432 in last year's Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which requires federal agencies to evaluate their energy use; to identify and implement cost-effective energy-saving measures; and to collect data from the evaluations in a web-based system to be developed by DOE. This last point – and the Policy Team's current focus – allows for the quality of the evaluations to be monitored, while providing greater assurance that identified measures are actually implemented.

GELAT recommended that the the web-based system provide both the public and Congress access to data on the agencies’ progress, while also ensuring protection of the privacy rights of Federal Energy Managers (FEMs) and avoiding potential breaches of national security. This would allow Congress and its constituents to oversee the government’s progress and to respond appropriately if that progress is not adequate.

GELAT also recommended that the system include an input field for “additional savings,” where FEMs can list the benefits of implemented energy conservation measures that go beyond the savings on their energy bills. This could include reduced maintenance costs, lower water bills, reduced emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants or other savings the facility enjoyed as a result of improvements to its energy system.

Additionally, GELAT suggested methods for streamlining the web-based system to meet multiple data requirements. It has sent these and several other recommendations to the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), with the hopes that DOE will see fit to implement these recommendations when drafting their final guidance. GELAT will continue to work with FEMP to ensure that the federal government's energy management is well-monitored and its energy use reduced, where possible.