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 axpayers could
save $1 billion annually and see a significant reduction in air
pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (7 million tons of carbon
dioxide) if the federal government adhered to the Energy Policy
Act and executive orders that require agencies to reduce energy
waste through improved energy productivity. This conclusion is
reported by the Alliance to Save Energy and a task force of 50
energy companies and organizations. Examining energy use by the
federal government, the nation's largest energy user, the Alliance
and the task force spent more than two years researching information
for a major new report released late last year: Leading By
Example: Improving Energy Productivity in Federal Government
Facilities.
 "How can the federal
government expect businesses and others to meet climate change
targets, when it's not setting the right example?" questioned
Alliance to Save Energy President David M. Nemtzow. "The
Clinton Administration continues its laudable support of the
Kyoto agreement to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Two
major oil companies, British Petroleum and Shell Oil, have committed
to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Shell is even going
beyond Kyoto and committed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by
10 percent below 1990 levels by 2002. Yet the federal government
hasn't even established a goal for itself."
"Reducing the federal
government's massive energy waste offers enormous opportunities
to save taxpayers billions of dollars for decades to come and
improve the environment," said Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM),
senior Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
next session and cochair of the Alliance. "We're starting
to make progress, but there's no excuse for this much waste when
leading companies in the U.S. energy-efficiency industry are
willing to provide the money for improvements at no up-front
cost to taxpayers."
While the federal government
claims to have reduced energy use 14.2 percent per gross square
foot between 1985-95, the Alliance's analysis indicates that
energy use actually went up 2.7 percent per gross square foot
when all government buildings and energy use are counted. Unlike
federal government calculations, Leading By Example includes
energy-intensive buildings and accounts for energy consumed in
the generation and distribution of power in federal facilities.
The federal government, which
still consumes about 32 percent more energy per square foot than
the nation's building stock at large, spends $4.2 billion per
year to power and fuel half a million buildings and facilities.
With an investment of $4.7 billion in energy-saving products
over the next eight years, taxpayers would save $1 billion annually
for decades to come.
"Federal agencies have
clearly made some progress, but they have only started to tap
the opportunities," said Jared O. Blum, president and chief
executive officer of the Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers
Association and cochair of the Alliance's Federal Energy Productivity
Task Force. "Private industry has the technology to enable
the federal government to save an enormous amount of money each
year with upgrades of energy-efficient technologies." In
order to meet the president's 30 percent energy reduction goal
by 2005, federal agencies will need to rely on the private sector,
especially energy service companies (ESCOs), to finance their
energy-efficiency improvements.
Energy-saving performance
contracts (ESPCs) could generate $900 million in investment capital
for government agencies through 2005, the Federal Energy Management
Program (FEMP) estimates. Available since 1992, just 72 ESPCs
have been used by agencies an investment of only $138 million.
"The fundamental problem is Cabinet secretaries aren't doing
their job," said Alliance Vice President Mark Hopkins. "I
think the President is as frustrated as we are that's why he
ordered them to prepare strategic plans in July. They were to
be done by now. Where are they?"
To reduce the time it takes
to award a delivery order for an energy-efficiency project to
six months rather than the previous one to three years, FEMP
and the Army Corps of Engineers have each issued regional indefinite-delivery
indefinite-quantity contracts (IDIQs) that agencies can use to
enter into ESPCs.
"I compliment FEMP and
the Corps of Engineers for creating the IDIQ approach. But even
with this innovative approach, few energy-saving projects have
been turned into actual contracts," said Glen J. Skovholt,
vice president of government and community affairs at Honeywell
Inc., and chair of the Federal Energy Productivity Task Force.
"The real challenge now is for FEMP and the Corp to help
agencies push projects out the door, so the private sector can
make the investments needed to end this waste of taxpayers' money."
"If major oil companies
can commit to deeper and faster reductions of greenhouse gas
emissions than called for by the Kyoto agreement, then the federal
government should certainly be able to at least match them,"
Nemtzow said. "The U.S. government must lead by example."
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