Edward Mazria's articles

Buried deep within the 1,428-page American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) bill, is Section 201, pages 320–348. It is this section that makes H.R. 2454 worth passing.

No matter what else is compromised or changed in the climate bill now working its way through the Senate, Section 201 must not be changed or weakened.

Why? Because all other energy and emissions reduction approaches pale in comparison to what Section 201 will accomplish. Without it, we simply cannot meet the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets called for in the bill. We won’t even come close.

Section 201 covers building energy codes – that’s right, building energy codes – that will transform the entire built environment in the United States by 2050.

I was wondering when it would happen, a building sector disinformation campaign launched by vested interests.

Well, it has. The campaign hit The New York Times on Saturday, and it comes from NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

It appears just as the country has come to grips with the fact that buildings are responsible for more than 50 percent (50.1 percent to be exact*) of all the energy consumed in the United States. It comes at a time when Americans are trying to reshape their energy policy and wean themselves from dependence on foreign oil, dwindling natural gas reserves and dirty conventional coal.

This disinformation campaign is obviously meant to stall, confuse and distort. The first salvo, a spurious study and press release, was issued two days before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on improving building energy code standards.

It is clear from a simple analysis of the study that NAIOP commissioned a building energy efficiency analysis to support predetermined results. They contracted with ConSol, an energy modeling firm, and asked them to analyze five (yes, only five) efficiency measures for an imaginary, square-shaped, four-story office building with completely sealed windows and an equal amount of un-shaded glass on all four sides of the building.

In other words, they analyzed an energy hog.