Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and Greeley Mayor Tom Norton also sat on the panel regarding reducing energy and water consumption in local community housing, planning and development.  The event was held at the Fox Run Accessible Space, Inc. in Greeley, Colorado, a recently completed energy efficient HUD project.

Laura Hutchings of Populus and co-chair of Efficiency First Colorado attended to express support for the advancement of the clean energy economy in Colorado and the integration of energy efficient technologies into affordable housing.  In addition, Hutchings thanked Congresswoman Markey for her support of the Home Star legislation, which would create jobs in the home performance industry.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, energy consulting and third-party verification services.  In addition, Populus provides consulting and training to municipalities to aid in the aid in the implementation of residential programs and energy codes.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.

In addition, for the very largest home water heaters, the new efficiency standards will for the first time require advanced technologies (heat pumps for electrically-powered products and condensing technology for gas products), paving the way for even bigger future savings.

“From washing hands to hot showers to clean dishes, we all rely on water heaters for our daily needs,” said Steven Nadel, Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).”These new standards will deliver big national energy savings, reduce consumer energy bills, and cut pollution.”

According to DOE, for most product sizes sold, the new standards can be met with modest changes, such as adding more insulation to today’s conventional tank-style water heaters.For the most common size electric water heater (50 gallons), the standards will save 4 percent while for the most common size gas water heater (40 gallons), the new standards will save 3 percent.These per unit savings add up to big national impacts since more than nine million home water heaters are sold every year and water heating accounts for some 12 percent of the typical home’s energy use.

However, for the biggest products (those with over 55 gallons in storage capacity, which is about 9% and 4% of the electric and gas water heater markets, respectively), the new standards can only be met with heat pump and condensing technology.Heat pump electric water heaters save at least 50 percent and gas condensing water heaters save about 25 percent relative to today’s conventional storage water heaters.

“In the long run, a shift to electric heat pump and condensing gas water heaters is absolutely essential if we are to make deep cuts in household energy use and costs,” said Jeffrey Harris, Vice President, National Programs, of the Alliance to Save Energy. “DOE deserves tremendous credit for kick-starting this transition with its new standards.”

The new standards will save 2.6 quads of energy over 30 years or about enough energy to meet the total needs of about 13 million typical U.S. households for one year.Over the same period, consumers would save about $8.7 billion and carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by 154 million metric tons (an amount equal to the typical annual emissions of 30 million cars).

Based on DOE analyses, ACEEE estimates that a transition to electric heat pump and condensing gas products in all sizes and applications that make sense would save about 10 quads of energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 0.5 billion metric tons.

Last year, President Obama committed to accelerate DOE’s work to update many outmoded standards.These new standards are the latest in a series of more than 20 that must be completed during the current presidential term.

“Just a year into President Obama’s administration, DOE has made remarkable progress to update appliance standards,” said Andrew deLaski, Executive Director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP). “DOE’s new standards prove again that the cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy we save.”

Condensing and heat pump technologies are common in space heating but have only a toehold so far in the water heater market.More than 40 percent of U.S. furnace sales are of condensing products, and about 8 percent of U.S. homes are warmed with heat pumps.Several major water heater companies have brought these technologies to the water heater market and other major manufacturers are working to develop and introduce competing products.

“The Obama Administration has demonstrated again its strong commitment to an energy-efficient future with these standards.These standards are a big step toward improving the efficiency of U.S. homes,” said Tim Ballo, Associate Attorney for Earthjustice. “We are encouraged to see the Obama Administration make the right choice and give energy efficiency the boost that it deserves. We hope this decision signals the Administration’s future choices on energy efficiency standards, which have the ability to put money back in the American people’s pockets, spur innovation, create jobs, and lift our economy, while at the same time reducing harmful air pollution from power plants.”

A broad coalition of consumer, energy efficiency, and environmental groups as well as utilities, state officials, and more than 17,000 individuals wrote DOE urging adoption of the standards announced today.

Today’s final rule also updates minimum standards for less common products such as tankless water heaters (also known as instantaneous water heaters), pool heaters, and direct heating equipment, a type of space heater.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, energy consulting and third-party verification services.  In addition, Populus provides consulting and training to municipalities to aid in the aid in the implementation of residential programs and energy codes.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, energy consulting and third-party verification services.  In addition, Populus provides consulting and training to municipalities to aid in the aid in the implementation of residential programs and energy codes.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” said Seattle City Council Chair Richard Conlin. “Energy disclosure is a key first step to tap into the gold mine of opportunities to save energy and money while improving the City’s existing building stock. I’d like to thank all the members of the Green Building Task Force and other stakeholders who helped create this new ordinance that will save energy and create new jobs in Seattle.”

You can read more about the new Energy Disclosure Ordinance here.

Making the Business Case: Sustainability Enhances Profit
“Profitability is the most successful point of entry”

L. Hunter Lovins
Sociologist, Attorney, International Business Sustainability Expert

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
St. John’s Episcopal Church
1419 Pine Street, Boulder, CO 80302

Time: 6:30-7:00 Social Hour
7:00-8:30pm Presentation

Clean Energy Action is proud to present internationally renowned sustainability pioneer Hunter Lovins. She willl explain how companies will do the right thing by the climate as they know how they can profit by doing so, with examples of sustainable companies outperforming competitors. Business winners will be those organizations prepared to “rigorously exploit” the global drivers of change — the climate crisis, volatile energy prices, economic and ecosystem collapse — by responding with energy efficiency, renewable energy and resource productivity. Lovins will describe innovative, practical tools and strategies that communities and companies are implementing to cut costs and drive innovation.

About the speaker

President and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Hunter Lovins was called the “green business icon” by Newsweek and “Hero of the Planet” by Time. The European financial community awarded her the 2008 Sustainability Pioneer for her 30 years of framing the business case for sustainability. A founding professor at Presidio Graduate School, Lovins has authored numerous papers and books, including the landmark work, Natural Capitalism. Ms. Lovins advises clients such as Wal-Mart, the United Nations, Royal Dutch/Shell, the International Finance Corporation, and the Afghanistan government.

For more information, contact Andy Lenec or visit
www.cleanenergyaction.org
Copyright© 2009 Clean Energy Action

Unlike previous years, this year Congress left for holiday recess without extending this important $2,000 tax credit.  Thus, the 2005 EPAct Builders Tax Credit expired on December 31, 2009.  The failure of Congress to extend this important energy efficiency tax credit is surprising in light of the extraordinary governmental support of energy efficiency initiatives in 2009.  Despite the national groundswell of attention given to energy efficiency and the green energy economy over the last year, the expiration of this tax credit represents a step backwards for the residential energy efficiency movement.

So that’s the bad news.

Now here’s the good news.  Congress is scheduled to return from recess in mid-January 2010 and several residential energy efficiency organizations are gearing up to push for an extension of this important tax credit (and hopefully advocating for additional tax incentives for achieving an above-code Home Energy Rating Score).

While many in Congress have voiced support for legislation that promotes energy efficiency and green job creation, it seems that there are some who do not understand the substantial impact that this tax credit has had in promoting energy efficiency in the residential housing market.  We need to make sure Congress understands.  It is imperative that builders, energy raters and building professionals let their representatives know how important this tax credit has been to their clients over the last few years and how effectively it has promoted high-performance home construction.

If you haven’t already done so, email or call your representatives in Congress and let them know that you support tax credits for builders who build energy efficient homes that demonstrate above-code performance.  Not sure what to say?  Then just go ahead and forward them this blog post.

If you’re a member of Congress who wants a better understanding of how the $2,000 tax credit operates and has worked at promoting residential energy efficiency, give Populus Sustainable Design Consulting a call at 303-325-7650 and we’d be happy to share our experiences with you.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, LEED for Homes Green Rater services and municipal energy code consulting.  In addition, Populus offers an Energy Code Workshop for architects and municipalities, as well as LEED for Homes training.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.

If you’re looking for an informative breakdown of the proposed legislation, including a general overview of how the proposed cap and trade regulatory scheme would operate, check out this helpful Faegre & Benson Climate Change Law Update webcast.  The webcast contains four parts, addressing federal legislative proposals, carbon offsets, federal regulation and case law, and regional and international programs.

Want to learn more? See the White House press release and a transcript of  the president’s remarks.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, LEED for Homes Green Rater services and municipal energy code consulting.  In addition, Populus offers an Energy Code Workshop for architects and municipalities, as well as LEED for Homes training.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.

What are President Obama’s targets for GHG reductions?  Initially, the U.S. will pursue a 17% reduction below 2005 levels by 2020 (to put this goal in historic context, the modest Kyoto targets were 7% below 1990 levels).  This proposed target corresponds to the GHG limits contained in the climate change legislation passed by the U.S. House.  It is worth noting that the U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would set a more aggressive target of 20% below 2005 levels by 2020.  Long term, President Obama has a stated goal of an 83% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050.  These long-term goals have been incorporated into pending climate change legislation by targeting 30% below 2005 levels by 2025 and to 42% below 2005 levels by 2030 (the same year that the Department of Energy is targeting affordable zero energy homes for all Americans).

In addition to President Obama, several top White House officials and cabinet members are also expected to attend the Copenhagen conference, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu.  For the first time in history, the United States will establish a Center at the conference where top U.S. officials will deliver keynote speeches on energy efficiency and climate change.  In a sign of the times, the U.S. Department of State has established a “COP-15″ Facebook page and website to track the event.

See the White House press release, the COP-15 Web site, and COP-15 Facebook Page.

In a parallel move, the day after the White House announced U.S. GHG targets, China announced a reduction of the “carbon intensity” of its emissions by 40%-45% by 2020.  This measure of emissions, which differs from the U.S.’s emission measurements focuses on the amount of CO2 emissions per unit of GDP.  China’s measurement would mean that total GHG emissions in China would actually increase from today’s levels, but would result in far less GHG emissions than the expected increases associated with the rapid growth of the economy in China.  To achieve these binding goals, China will focus on research, development and commercialization of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and encourage low-carbon lifestyles.  In addition, China’s Premier will attend the Copenhagen conference.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, LEED for Homes Green Rater services and municipal energy code consulting.  In addition, Populus offers an Energy Code Workshop for architects and municipalities, as well as LEED for Homes training.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.