Testimony of Brad Heavner, Director, Environment Maryland, Before the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality of the Energy and Commerce Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, July 17, 2008

Thank you for the opportunity to testify and for your attention on this vitally important issue. My name is Brad Heavner, and I am the state director of Environment Maryland, a state partner of Environment America. Environment America is the new home of U.S. PIRG’s environmental work. We are a federation of state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations. 

We are long past due dealing with global warming, and we need to get to work immediately. My father was born in 1936, and the family lived in a small brick house in Detroit with an oil furnace. The carbon dioxide emissions that year from the furnace in that house are still in the atmosphere today. CO2 remains in the atmosphere for at least 100 years. 

The emissions associated with cooling this building right now will be a factor in the stability of the climate when my grandchildren are older than I am today. We need to get to work.

We’ve come a long way in building efficiency since my father was born, but our buildings still pollute far too much. Despite advances in technology, the total amount of energy used by American buildings has increased 25% since 1990.

But the greatest crisis is also our greatest opportunity. As peak oil forces changes in our economy – an economy that is very dependent on cheap fuel – what will be the next growth industry? It is this – energy efficiency and clean energy. 

Preventing wasted energy in buildings is likely the biggest of all clean energy opportunities. 

A report issued this past February by the McKinsey Global Institute found that by 2020 we could reduce annual energy consumption in the U.S. by 10 percent through cost-effective building efficiency measures such as more efficient lighting, water heating, and appliances, and by designing new buildings to be more energy efficient. These changes would reduce our annual global warming emissions by 962 MMT. To give a sense of scale, that’s about 14% of current total U.S. emissions.

These changes would also eliminate the need to build dozens of new power plants, and thereby save us money. Building coal plants to produce the same amount of energy would cost three times as much. Building nuclear plants would cost five times as much.  

So the big question is, if there is so much potential for reductions, and those reductions are cost-effective, why aren’t energy efficient building techniques more widespread already. 

I don’t think the answer to that is complicated. The biggest hurdle is that the decision makers for how buildings get built are often not the same people who benefit from reduced fuel consumption. Builders are primarily focused on the initial sale price of the building. The ongoing operating costs are not really a business factor for them. Homebuyers are rarely experts on energy-saving building design, so they take their advice from the builders.

It is therefore essential to set strong standards to protect consumers and the environment. Building codes should be based on up-to-date potential for energy savings.

For existing buildings, where you are usually unable to roll the costs into a long-term mortgage, financial incentives are key, in addition to creative financing mechanisms that allow consumers to spread out costs over time. 

This is not a matter of hoping for new technology. Homes and businesses already exist that use a fraction of the energy of typical buildings. Some also generate all the energy needed to power them on-site, using renewable sources such as wind and solar power. These zero energy buildings should be the standard for all new buildings by 2030.

Last year’s energy bill made progress toward this goal. But there is much more to do.

The first thing Congress can do to lead us on the path toward a zero energy building sector is to require building energy codes to be strengthened and enforced. National legislation should require the model codes to be 30 percent more efficient beginning in 2010, and 50 percent more efficient beginning in 2020. And it should ensure that all states require and enforce this level of energy efficiency in new buildings. 

We’ll have a chance to get a head start on this in September when officials from towns and cities across the country come together to adopt the model residential energy code. They’ll be voting on the 30% Solution, which would require new homes to be 30% more energy efficient. These officials need to hear from their elected leaders that they are depending on them to deliver a stronger code that includes the 30% Solution, and that they’ll get the support they need to enforce the code when it is adopted.

There are also a number of existing and newly created programs that are essential to maintain and improve.

The energy tax credits set to expire at the end of this year include tax deductions and bonds to help Americans construct and retrofit buildings to waste less energy and take advantage of solar power. These tax credits must be renewed.

Congress has created the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program to assist local governments promote high performance, energy efficient buildings. But Congress has yet to appropriate the $2 billion per year needed to fund the program.

For three decades, the federal government has been providing grants to state agencies for the Weatherization Assistance Program. Recently, this program has been threatened; instead it should be expanded to reach more homes and provide even greater energy efficiency improvements.

We need to adopt many policies to address global warming.  Some will be easy and some will be difficult. Some will save us money and some will cost us money. Some will have multiple secondary benefits and some will be more limited. Policies to promote green buildings are among the most positive win-win policies. We should be as aggressive as possible in this category.  We’d be cheating ourselves if we didn’t maximize the potential from high efficiency buildings.