The Government Energy Leadership Action Team Task Force (GELAT) was established by the Alliance to Save Energy in 2007 to develop new approaches to federal energy management that improve the energy performance of the federal government and to advocate for their adoption. GELAT activities are funded by support from Alliance Associate members.
In only a little over a year, GELAT has been very successful in ensuring implementation of its agenda. Most notably, GELAT played a central role in crafting provisions in Section 432 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, P.L. 110-140 (EISA). Section 432 directs facilities to evaluate their energy use and identify and implement cost-effective energy-saving measures. The data from these evaluations is to be collected in a web-based system to be developed by the Department of Energy (DOE), thus enabling the quality of the evaluations to be monitored and providing greater assurance that identified measures are actually implemented.
GELAT also played a key role in obtaining permanent authorization of energy-saving performance contracts (ESPCs) in EISA, thus providing a reliable source of energy efficiency funding that agencies will be able to tap for decades to come.
GELAT continues to work with the Department of Energy and other agencies to encourage full and effective implementation of Section 432 and other provisions in EISA, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) and Executive Order 13423 (EO 13423). For example, in April 2008, GELAT provided recommendations on DOE’s draft guidance for the Section 432 energy and water evaluations, and it continues to work with DOE on other implementation issues, including the guidelines for the web-based reporting system due in December. In addition, GELAT is in contact with congressional offices to ensure that agencies are complying with the law. GELAT also is organizing a series of congressional briefings to educate Members on the importance of these provisions and further steps that need to be taken.
Background
The federal government is the nation’s single largest energy consumer and energy waster. In 2005, the federal government consumed about 1.6 quadrillion Btu’s (quads) of energy at a cost of $14.5 billion. This is 1.6% of all energy used in the United States. American taxpayers pay about $4 billion annually just to heat, cool, and power the 500,000 federal buildings and facilities.
Efforts over the last two decades to reduce energy use in federal buildings and facilities have resulted in significant energy and cost savings. Overall, federal primary energy use decreased by 18 percent from 1985 to 2006, and in buildings primary energy consumption decreased by eight percent. Federal building and facility energy bills decreased by 22 percent in real terms in that time period, considerably more than the 15 percent decrease in the cost of primary energy supplied to those facilities. In large part due to energy-saving efforts, federal building carbon emissions were 18 percent lower in 2005 than in 1990.
A range of policies and programs have been used to realize these savings, including most notably: energy intensity targets, alternative project financing, efficient procurement requirements, and a variety of training and technical assistance. Expanding, enhancing and fully implementing these policies and programs will help the federal government reap huge amounts of savings that still remain.
Federal Energy Goals
For more than three decades, federal agencies have been subject to energy intensity reduction goals or mandates (reducing energy consumption per square foot of buildings). The current goals, originally required as part of the January 2007 Executive Order (EO) 13423 and codified in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), require federal agencies to reduce energy intensity by three percent each year, or 30 percent by 2015 compared to 2003 energy intensity levels. In order to help federal agencies meet this requirement, EISA requires all federal agencies to identify facilities that combine to make up at least 75% of agency energy use, and appoint an energy manager at each of those facilities. Agencies also must perform comprehensive energy and water evaluations for 25% of their covered facilities each year.
Financing Federal Energy Savings
Although many energy-efficiency investments save money over time, appropriations for energy-efficiency projects have historically been insufficient, and the new energy intensity targets will exacerbate the funding gap. An investment of about $9.5 billion through 2015, or about $1.3 billion per year over the next seven years, likely will be needed to meet the current energy targets and reap the associated energy and carbon savings. This investment is far greater than recent annual appropriations for energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy projects in existing federal buildings, which have ranged from only about $100 million to $300 million. Through 2015, at existing appropriations, the federal government would therefore be facing a cumulative budget shortfall of up to about $7 billion.
Since the mid-1990s, this funding gap has been filled with private sector financing from energy services companies (ESCOs) and energy utilities. ESCOs and utilities finance and help implement energy-saving projects through ESPCs and Utility Energy Services Contracts (UESCs), in which the contractor is paid out of the resulting stream of energy bill savings. In FY 2006 direct appropriations provided $281 million for energy efficiency, water conservation, and renewable energy projects, while ESPCs provided $314 million and UESCs provided $70 million. Prior to a lapse in ESPC authority in 2003 and 2004, ESPCs provided an even greater share of overall funding for energy efficiency. With ESPCs now receiving permanent authorization through the passage of EISA, ESPCs increasingly can be used again by agencies to pay for and implement energy-efficiency projects.
References
- Federal Energy Management Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Annual Report to Congress, Department of Energy (September 2006), http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/pdfs/annrep05.pdf
- Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Federal Buildings, Facilities and Vehicles, Joe Loper, Jeff Harris, Steve Capanna, Alliance to Save Energy (2008)
- Leading by Example: Improving Energy Productivity in Federal Government Facilities, Joe Loper, Katie Miller, Mark Hopkins, Alliance to Save Energy, (1998)
For more information, contact Clayton Crownover (crownover@ase.org) or Brad Penney (bpenney@ase.org).
Updated: August 15, 2008