Shaheen-Portman earns support from White House

After a summer of waiting, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act – co-authored by Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Rob Portman – is finally slated for a Senate vote and possible passage into law. As The Huffington Post notes, the bipartisan legislation, if passed, would mark the first noteworthy energy efficiency action taken by Congress in six years. 

On Wednesday, September 11, just days before the Senate was expected to vote on the bill, Senator Shaheen took the floor to remind her colleagues of the wide-reaching, bipartisan support that the measure – often referred to as just Shaheen-Portman – has enjoyed since it was drafted in May. Advocates run the gamut of 260 businesses, trade associations and non-governmental organizations, including groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers. President Obama also lent his support to the bill, in an official statement released by the White House that same day:

"[Shaheen-Portman] would build on the momentum established the Administration's 'all of the above' energy strategy, supporting the President's goal to cut in half the energy wasted by U.S. homes and businesses by 2030."

A new study released last week by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy corroborated these claims, projecting that the bipartisan bill could yield up to $65 billion in saved energy expenses, in addition to producing 174,000 new jobs for Americans.

While Washington D.C. lawmakers begin their debate on the bill, homeowners in the area can get started on their own energy efficiency improvements with help from DC home inspectors. These professionals can perform an energy audit of your property, analyzing ways in which you may be wasting power and recommending steps to fix these issues, helping you save hundreds of dollars in long-term utility expenses.

Microgrids are the latest development in energy efficiency measures. In the United States, homes and businesses receive their electricity needs from the larger national power grid. This billion-dollar industry has long been the traditional mechanism for delivery energy to Americans, but the havoc caused by major storms like Hurricane Sandy reveals their major weakness: It's all too easy for a building to lose its connection to the electrical grid and subsequently find itself without power. Microgrids are changing that formula, though. The idea is to build several, small energy grids across the country – instead of one big one – that can reliably service local areas and generate power through more renewable sources. The concept would significantly boost the number and practicality of energy efficient homes in America.

The latest such iteration in the microgrid project is a new initiative called Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS). The program will be initially aimed at serving U.S. military bases, in better protecting these installations from power outages. According to Burns & McDonnell, a Kansas City engineering firm, the project has four main goals:

• Protecting infrastructure in event of power loss from "physical disruptions or cyber attacks"
• Reducing petroleum demands and carbon footprints
• Sustaining important operations during power outages
• Utilizing renewable energy sources to meet power needs.

If successful, SPIDERS would have far-reaching implications for all not just the military but all Americans.

In the meantime, Virginia homeowners looking to become more efficient should schedule an appointment with local Virginia home inspectors. A home inspection can help identify potential wasteful energy uses, making a residence more eco-friendly and reducing those costly utility expenses. 

The United States is slowly but surely making more impressive gains in the field of energy efficiency, with increasing numbers of American homeowners and businesses looking to adopt greener measures that will serve to reduce both harmful carbon dioxide emissions and costly monthly utility bills. Now, a new analysis from the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) has helped to quantify exactly how much the country has improved in becoming more efficient.

Citing a new EIA study, Earth Techling reports that 14.2 percent of the energy used by Americans in the first half of 2013 was clean, generated from completely renewable sources. The data from a six-month period, spanning January to June of this year, shows that, compared to 2012:

• Geothermal sources received a 3.4 percent bump
• Solar energy increased by 56.9 percent
• Wind power grew by 15.3 percent

"The growth of renewable energy over the past several years has been remarkable and with the right policies in place at the federal level, the potential for future growth will be much greater," said Amy Davidsen, U.S. Executive Director for The Climate Group, in an official statement.

The EIA also reveals that the number of renewable, non-hydro energy sources has nearly quadrupled its output over the last 10 years, from 2.05 percent to its current 7.71 percent.

Homeowners in Washington D.C. looking to live in energy efficient homes of their own are encouraged to schedule an appointment for a home inspection. DC home inspectors can identify ways in which a house may be consuming unnecessary amounts of power and can recommend steps to resolve these issues, leading to cheaper utility expenses in the long run.

For several years, home builders and energy efficiency advocates have shared a very delicate relationship. While both groups recognize the importance of updating building codes on the local and federal levels in order to create more eco-friendly properties, they have rarely been able to agree on just how strict those guidelines should be. This tenuous back-and-forth may have taken a positive turn, though, as the two have reportedly reached a new deal that could promote further cooperation in the future.

Greentech Media reports that the Leading Builders of America (LBA) – which represents 40 percent of the country's single-family-home builders – partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) last month in a show of support for new residential energy codes that could drastically improve the efficiency of housing stock. If adopted, these new proposals could create homes that are 20 percent more energy efficient over the next two years. David Goldstein, co-director of the NRDC's energy and transportation program, hailed the joint effort as the first instance in 40 years where the two parties have been able to work together.

"This is a breakthrough – this agreement shows there's progress," Goldstein said in an interview. "This is the first time we've talked to LBA as a group on overarching code issues. While we didn't agree on everything, we narrowed the differences enough."

As advocacy organizations and builders begin working together like this, the proliferation of energy efficient homes in America will only increase even more in the future. Maryland residents looking to improve how their houses utilize power now are encouraged to schedule an appointment for a home inspection. Maryland home inspectors can help identify and correct ways in which your residence may be wasting energy and unnecessarily driving up utility bills.

Earlier this year, President Obama continued his administration's energy efficiency campaign – known as the Climate Action Plan – by adding a new goal of increasing efficiency standards for appliances and federal buildings with the hope of cutting down on 3 billion metric tons of carbon pollution by 2030, an amount that translates to nearly half of the country's carbon footprint. To this end, the Department of Energy announced on August 29 some of the more specific rules that would help families and building owners achieve this goal.

According to The White House itself, these new measures target refrigerators and walk-in coolers and freezers for businesses like restaurants, convenience stores and supermarkets. The new refrigeration standards could reduce energy expenses by $4 billion and carbon emissions by 55 million metric tons over the next 30 years. The adjustments made to the market coolers and freezers could reap another $24 billion in savings and cuts of nearly 300 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

In total, if approved, these Energy Department regulations could yield nearly $30 billion in saved power costs and diminish the country's environmental impact by 350 million metric tons. These figures are equal to the electrical consumption of 50 million homes in just one year.

American families in the Maryland and Virginia area can take greener steps of their own by scheduling an appointment for a home inspection. Professional Maryland and Virginia home inspectors can perform an energy audit of a homeowner's property, assessing how effectively a house uses power and what measures can be taken to increase efficiency and decrease utility bills.

A new energy efficiency program has helped the schools of Marshfield, Wisconsin, save over $500,000 over four straight years.

The Marshfield News-Herald, a local news source, reports that new eco-friendly additions implemented in the Marshfield School District – such as upgraded lighting fixtures in three elementary schools and modified air handlers in the high school – helped to yield over $18,000 in just the last year alone. The Environmental Protection Agency bequeathed the district with its ENERGY STAR Leader status for reducing its energy consumption by over 30 percent since 2005.

"In 2008, there were some huge gains," Rom Sturomski, the schools' director of buildings and grounds, told the source. "Now we have things so dialed in after five years, but we're still squeezing out $18,000, that's really good."

According to the report, from between 2005 and the 2008-09 school year, Marshfield schools racked up approximately $900,000 in annual utility expenses. The 2012-13 school year saw that amount drop to by nearly one-third to $635,000. Energy efficiency has also helped the district cut back on carbon dioxide emissions by over 1,700 metric tons, the equivalent of what 44,300 trees could consume over a decade.

Looking to the future, officials have spent the summer replacing 75 percent of the middle school's single-paned windows with more efficient ones and will be using next summer to overhaul the building's heating and ventilation. For now, according to Sturomski, the best thing schools can do to improve energy efficiency is educate staffers about small but meaningful measures, like shutting off the lights in empty rooms.

If you're a homeowner in Maryland, you can learn about ways to save power around the house and wind up with cheaper bills of your own by scheduling an appointment for a home inspection with qualified Maryland home inspectors.

When making the case for energy efficiency, the argument typically involves highlighting how investing into more sustainable lifestyles can significantly cut back on utility expenses and yield impressive long-term savings on energy bills. But, as Greentech Media reports, sometimes the benefits of going green can go beyond just saving more money over time. 

According to the source, Honeywell recently finished a $2 million "smart building" project in the Spring Creek Towers apartment complex of Brooklyn, New York. The 46-building complex spans nearly 5,900 units and includes a wealth of renewable energy sources including a central cogeneration facility that converts gas and oil into high-pressure steam, which is backed up by a number of secondary plants. As a result, the complex is entirely disconnected from the main electrical grid.

The new retrofit installed a building management system that tracks patterns of energy usage, which can be used to both determine efficiency and find ways to improve it for the future.

"They can, in real time, measure the supply and return temperatures to the apartments and understand whether the system is doing its job efficiently," Greg Turner, the Vice President of Global Offerings for Honeywell Building Solutions, told Greentech Media. "You can use energy efficiency data to decide on capital improvements."

In other words, by analyzing just how much energy consumption is necessary to keep the buildings running, managers can save significantly on the amount of power appropriated for the complex and at a value that far outweighs the savings that normal efficiency upgrades would help yield. 

Virginia homeowners who would like to hop on the green bandwagon are encouraged to meet with Virginia home inspectors to get an energy audit performed on their property. This process can help you understand how your home may be wasting energy and what steps can taken to improve efficiency.

When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City last year and knocked out the power, many buildings were able to keep their lights running thanks to microgrids that used renewable sources of energy, generated onsite rather than derived from the national grid. Now, the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force is looking for ways to extrapolate those methods and implement them onto a larger scale as a key to nationwide energy efficiency.

Last week, the Task Force – led by President Obama and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan – released its Rebuilding Strategy report, which looks to "rebuild communities affected by Hurricane Sandy in ways that are 'better able to withstand future storms and other risks posed by climate change.'" According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), part of this plan entails strategizing ways in which "smarter, flexible energy" sources can be used to improve the resiliency and recovery of storm-ravaged towns in addition to reducing harmful carbon emissions that ultimately contribute to these storms in the first place.

According to the EDF, the Task Force is aiming to replicate these strategies – and their successful results – in houses, schools, offices and other public buildings, in order to make all kinds of neighborhoods and cities more efficient and sustainable. One of the report's recommendations in moving toward this end is to offer eco-friendly upgrades as part of mortgages or insurance plans.

While lawmakers in the nation's capitol deliberate these measures, homeowners in the area can take green steps of their own by a scheduling for a home inspection. DC home inspectors can assess your property for ways in which your house may be wasting energy and can recommend steps to take to both improve efficiency and cut down on monthly utility expenses.