HR 1778 - The Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP) Program Act
Rationale:
Buildings are responsible for 40 percent of all
energy consumption,
70 percent of all electricity consumption, and
50
percent of all carbon emissions in the United States.
Buildings in the
United States account for 10 percent of global carbon emissions.
Energy efficiency in buildings can be maximized with existing
technologies to reduce building energy consumption by 25 percent or
more.
Expanding the residential and commercial efficiency will create
jobs directly in performing retrofits, reduce energy bills for
consumers, and address global carbon emissions.
Program Goals: The purpose of the Retrofit for Energy and
Environmental Performance (REEP) program is to facilitate the
retrofitting of existing buildings across the United States to achieve
cost-effective energy efficiency improvements of 20 percent and
significant improvements in water use. The program will provide
federal financial assistance to state and local agencies for direct
cash incentives and for the management of this program. State and
local agencies will have broad flexibility in the structure of program
operations and choice of retrofit agencies or contractors.
Administration: The Department of Energy and the Environmental
Protection Agency will develop and implement the REEP program. State
Energy Offices will then implement the REEP Program in accordance with
standards and requirements adopted by the Administrator for the
residential program and the Secretary for the commercial program.
States will be given maximum flexibility to implement the program
through the agency with the greatest familiarity with overall building
performance. States may also delegate performance of the REEP program,
upon their request and subject to state law, to counties,
municipalities, public agencies, and other divisions of local
government, provided that the State retains accountability for the
funds and maintains responsibility to meet federal standards and
requirements. States and local government entities may in turn employ
public or regulated investor-owned utilities, building auditors and
inspectors, contractors, non-profit organizations, and other entities
to perform actual audits and retrofit services.
Financial Incentives for Residential and Commerce Buildings:
The goal of REEP is to support direct incentives for efficiency
improvements in residential and commercial buildings, compared to the
building's previous energy use. Both residential and commercial
buildings are eligible to receive additional incentives for properties
achieving at least 20% energy savings in the use of water.
For homes:
• $1000 for a combination of prescriptive measures designed to
reduce energy consumption by more than 10% (but not less than 10%), and
$2000 for prescriptive measures designed to reduce energy consumption
by 20%;
• $3000 for actual demonstrated savings of 20% utilizing the
performance based structure, and $150 per additional percentage point
of energy savings achieved;
• Incentives may accumulate to a maximum incentive not to exceed 50% of retrofit costs.
For commercial buildings:
• a maximum of $0.15 per square foot of retrofit area for energy use reductions from 20% to 30%;
• $0.75 per square foot for energy use reductions from 30% to 40%;
• $1.60 per square foot for energy use reductions from 40% to 50%; and
• $2.50 per square foot for energy use reductions exceeding 50%.
• Incentives may accumulate to a maximum incentive not to exceed 50% of retrofit costs.
Standards: Both the residential and commercial REEP program
requires RESNET certification of building energy and environment
auditors, inspectors, and raters and Building Performance Institute
(BPI) certification or licensing by states of building energy and
environmental retrofit contractors. Standards will be developed for
the determination of energy savings in the performance-based program.
State Energy Offices will be required to apply standards for training,
certification of contractors, certification of buildings, and
post-retrofit inspection as developed by EPA and DOE for residential
and commercial buildings, respectively. Regular audits of the program
are required.
Flexibility to Implement Efficiency Programs: The REEP program
will allow alternate means of creating incentives or reducing financial
barriers to improve energy and environmental performance in buildings.
These include utilizing the incentive to provide credit enhancement,
interest rate subsidies, or other traditional credit support; to
provide initial capital for public revolving-fund financing of
retrofits (examples include: Montgomery County, MD; Babylon, NY; and
Berkeley, CA) with repayments by beneficiary building owners over time
through their tax payments, calibrated to be net positive cash flow to
building owner; or to support qualified utility-operated retrofit
programs.
Federal Support: During the initial year of the REEP program,
financial support will be provided to each state in accordance with the
State Energy Program formula. In the second year and thereafter, half
of available or appropriated funds will be allocated in accordance with
the State Energy Program, and half in accordance with the relative
performance of the states during the prior year, with higher
allocations going to states showing greater success in improving energy
and environmental performance of the buildings retrofitted in that
state during that prior year. The program calls for $2.5 billion each
year for distribution to State Energy Offices and $500 million for
administration of the program for Fiscal Years 2010-2014.
Co-sponsors: Chris Van Hollen, George Miller, Steve Israel,
Patrick J. Murphy, Carolyn B. Maloney, Mike Honda, Carolyn C.
Kilpatrick, André Carson, Kathy Dahlkemper, Frank Pallone, Steve Cohen,
Elijah Cummings, Jim Langevin, Keith Ellison, Maurice Hinchey, Paul
Tonko, Earl Blumenauer, Carol Shea-Porter, Donna Christensen, Bruce
Braley, George Miller, Harry Teague, William Delahunt, Jay Inslee, Joe
Courtney, Martin Heinrich, Russ Carnahan, Jim Himes, Ed Perlmutter,
Lois Capps, Jared Polis
Supporting organizations include: Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), EfficiencyFirst, the American Council for an
Energy-Efficiency Economy (ACEEE), the National Trust for Historic
Preservation, and the US Green Buildings Council
Summary provided to VNRC by Congressman Peter Welch's office - www.welch.house.gov
H.R. 1778