113 HR 2126 IH: Better Buildings Act of 2013
U.S. House of Representatives
2013-05-23
text/xml
EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
1.This Act may be cited as the
Better Buildings Act of
2013
.
2.Energy efficiency
in Federal and other buildings
(a)In
this section:
(1)The
term Administrator means the Administrator of General
Services.
(2)Cost-effective
energy efficiency measureThe terms cost-effective energy
efficiency measure and measure mean any building product,
material, equipment, or service and the installing, implementing, or operating
thereof, that provides energy savings in an amount that is not less than the
cost of such installing, implementing, or operating.
(b)Model
provisions, policies, and best practices
(1)Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of
this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy and
after providing the public with an opportunity for notice and comment, shall
develop model leasing provisions and best practices in accordance with this
subsection.
(2)
(A)The model commercial leasing provisions developed under
this subsection shall, at a minimum, align the interests of building owners and
tenants with regard to investments in cost-effective energy efficiency measures
to encourage building owners and tenants to collaborate to invest in such
measures.
(B)The Administrator may use the model provisions
developed under this subsection in any standard leasing document that
designates a Federal agency (or other client of the Administrator) as a
landlord or tenant.
(C)The
Administrator shall periodically publish the model leasing provisions developed
under this subsection, along with explanatory materials, to encourage building
owners and tenants in the private sector to use such provisions and
materials.
(3)The Administrator shall develop policies and practices
to implement cost-effective energy efficiency measures for the realty services
provided by the Administrator to Federal agencies (or other clients of the
Administrator), including periodic training of appropriate Federal employees
and contractors on how to identify and evaluate those measures.
(4)State and local
assistanceThe Administrator,
in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall make available model
leasing provisions and best practices developed under this subsection to State,
county, and municipal governments to manage owned and leased building space in
accordance with the goal of encouraging investment in all cost-effective energy
efficiency measures.
3.Separate spaces
with high-performance energy efficiency measuresSubtitle B of title IV of the Energy
Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42 U.S.C. 17081 et seq.) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
424.Separate spaces
with high-performance energy efficiency measures
(a)In
this section:
(1)High-performance
energy efficiency measureThe term high-performance energy
efficiency measure means a technology, product, or practice that will
result in substantial operational cost savings by reducing energy consumption
and utility costs.
(2)The term separate spaces means areas within a
commercial building that are leased or otherwise occupied by a tenant or other
occupant for a period of time pursuant to the terms of a written
agreement.
(b)
(1)Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this
section, the Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy, shall complete a study on the feasibility
of—
(A)significantly
improving energy efficiency in commercial buildings through the design and
construction, by owners and tenants, of separate spaces with high-performance
energy efficiency measures; and
(B)encouraging owners
and tenants to implement high-performance energy efficiency measures in
separate spaces.
(2)The
study shall, at a minimum, include—
(A)descriptions
of—
(i)high-performance
energy efficiency measures that should be considered as part of the initial
design and construction of separate spaces;
(ii)processes that
owners, tenants, architects, and engineers may replicate when designing and
constructing separate spaces with high-performance energy efficiency
measures;
(iii)standards and
best practices to achieve appropriate energy intensities for lighting, plug
loads, pipe loads, heating, cooling, cooking, laundry, and other systems to
satisfy the needs of the commercial building tenant;
(iv)return on investment and payback analyses
of the incremental cost and projected energy savings of the proposed set of
high-performance energy efficiency measures, including consideration of tax and
other available incentives;
(v)models and
simulation methods that predict the quantity of energy used by separate spaces
with high-performance energy efficiency measures and that compare that
predicted quantity to the quantity of energy used by separate spaces without
high-performance energy efficiency measures but that otherwise comply with
applicable building code requirements;
(vi)measurement and
verification platforms demonstrating actual energy use of high-performance
energy efficiency measures installed in separate spaces, and whether such
measures generate the savings intended in the initial design and construction
of the separate spaces;
(vii)best practices that encourage an integrated
approach to designing and constructing separate spaces to perform at optimum
energy efficiency in conjunction with the central systems of a commercial
building; and
(viii)any impact on
employment resulting from the design and construction of separate spaces with
high-performance energy efficiency measures; and
(B)case studies
reporting economic and energy saving returns in the design and construction of
separate spaces with high-performance energy efficiency measures.
(3)Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this section, the Secretary shall publish a notice in the Federal
Register requesting public comments regarding effective methods, measures, and
practices for the design and construction of separate spaces with
high-performance energy efficiency measures.
(4)The
Secretary shall publish the study on the website of the Department of
Energy.
.
4.Subtitle B of title IV
of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (42 U.S.C. 17081 et seq.)
(as amended by section 3) is amended by adding at the end the following:
425.
(a)In
this section:
(1)High-performance
energy efficiency measureThe term high-performance energy
efficiency measure has the meaning given the term in section 424.
(2)The term separate spaces has the meaning
given the term in section 424.
(b)The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in
consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall develop a voluntary program
within the Energy Star program established by section 324A of the Energy Policy
and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6294a), which may be known as Tenant Star, to
promote energy efficiency in separate spaces leased by tenants or otherwise
occupied within commercial buildings.
(c)The Secretary of Energy, acting through the Administrator of
the Energy Information Administration, shall—
(1)collect, through
each Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey of the Energy Information
Administration that is conducted after the date of enactment of this section,
data on—
(A)categories of
building occupancy that are known to consume significant quantities of energy,
such as occupancy by law firms, data centers, trading floors, restaurants,
retail outlets, and financial services firms; and
(B)other aspects of the property, building
operation, or building occupancy determined by the Administrator of the Energy
Information Administration, in consultation with the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency, to be relevant in lowering energy consumption;
and
(2)make data collected under paragraph (1)
available to the public in aggregated form and provide such data, and any
associated results, to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
for use in accordance with subsection (d).
(d) Recognition of
owners and tenants
(1)Occupancy-based
recognitionNot later than 1 year after the date on which the
data described in subsection (c) is received, the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency shall, following an opportunity for public
notice and comment—
(A)in a manner
similar to the Energy Star rating system, develop policies and procedures to
recognize tenants in commercial buildings that voluntarily achieve high levels
of energy efficiency in separate spaces;
(B)establish building
occupancy categories eligible for Tenant Star recognition based on the data
collected under subsection (c)(1) and any associated results; and
(C)consider other
forms of recognition for commercial building tenants or other occupants that
lower energy consumption in separate spaces.
(2)Design- and
construction-based recognitionAfter the study required by section 424(b)
is completed, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in
consultation with the Secretary and following an opportunity for public notice
and comment, may develop a voluntary program to recognize commercial building
owners and tenants that use high-performance energy efficiency measures in the
design and construction of separate spaces.
(e)For purposes
of this section, the impact on climate change shall not be a factor in
determining energy efficiency of commercial building
tenants.
.