Jonathan Gritz's Profile

Dr. Harvey Sachs, senior fellow with the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), said the NAIOP/ConSol study appeared to strive for a “pre-determined conclusion that energy efficiency is hard to achieve and not cost-effective.”

LEED Platinum-certified Center for Health and Healing, a 400,000-square-foot building completed two years ago in Portland, OR, achieved a 60 percent improvement in energy efficiency over state code and came in 10 percent below budget estimates for conventional design.

The measurements, which would in fact come from Energy Star, would likely appear side-by-side on the label and receive separate ratings using letter grades like those found on European building labels

It is due to be released at ASHRAE’s Annual Meeting in June.

An Energy Star rating is created by measuring a building against a baseline of building energy consumption statistics compiled through the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), a random sampling that is collected on a quadrennial basis by the Energy Information Administration, an independent arm of the U.S. Department of Energy.

For common building types, CBECS data is fairly robust and seen as statistically valid. But for less common buildings, such as police stations or museums, “the data isn’t there in a sufficient way for Energy Star to analyze,” said Jean Lupinacci, chief of the ENERGY STAR Commercial and Industrial Branch at EPA and a member of the ASHRAE label committee.

peak employment during the construction of a nuclear reactor can reach 4,000 jobs. Once built, you’re looking at 400-700 full-time jobs. Now, if all the 26 reactors in the pipeline were built in the US, you’d be talking about 12,000 to 21,000 jobs

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has streamlined the permitting process, so the timeline [for a new nuclear plant] is more like 8-10 years, rather than 15 years as in the past.

And that’s only going to get faster—we’re talking about 4 technologies for new reactors instead of the 95 or so for the current 104 reactors.

available for improvements made during 2009

Tax credits for builders of new energy efficient homes and tax deductions for owners and designers of energy efficient commercial buildings were also extended.

On February 27, 2008, the House passed $18.1 billion in renewable energy tax incentives (H.R. 5351), including an extension of the tax credit for energy-efficient home improvements.

tax deduction of up to $1.80 per square foot is available to owners or designers of new or existing commercial buildings that save at least 50% of the heating and cooling energy of a building that meets ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2001. Partial deductions of up to $.60 per square foot can be taken for measures affecting any one of three building systems: the building envelope, lighting, or heating and cooling systems. These tax deductions are available for systems “placed in service” from January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2013.