California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday announced that he signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 758, legislation that aims to make existing buildings more energy efficient and less expensive to operate.
AB 758 requires the California Energy Commission to establish a regulatory proceeding, by March 1, 2010, to develop a comprehensive program to achieve energy savings in the existing residential and commercial building stock that falls significantly below current building standards. For the first time the CEC will be given the authority to implement such a program.
The bill would also require the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC), by January 1, 2011, to authorize each electrical corporation to provide a targeted number of low- or no-cost energy efficiency audits each calendar year.
In the residential sector there are currently over 13 million homes and apartments in California. Within that number over 9 million were built prior to the implementation of the first set of energy efficiency standards. This means that three quarters of homes in the state have never had to comply with any energy efficiency requirements.
Today in the U.S. buildings account for a greater amount of heat trapping greenhouse gas emissions than transportation, manufacturing or any other sector. In fact 70% of all electricity consumption and 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions nationally can be directly attributed to buildings.
Retrofitting and weatherizing an existing building can significantly lower utility costs for residents. Lower energy consumption means a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and less stress on the power grid, reducing the vulnerability to the rolling blackouts Californians experienced in 2000.
According to the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) 2005 report “Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings” they project that electricity can be reduced 9% and natural gas 6% through cost effective measures which translates to $4.5 billion dollars in consumer savings. Implementing the CEC’s recommended cost effective measures is the equivalent of removing over 3 million cars from the road for one year.
In Related News…
New York City is considering passing regulations requiring mandatory energy audits of existing buildings with 50,000 square feet or more of space. Read the full report at the link below.
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