US House Passes ‘Tenant Star’ Bill

The US House of Representatives passed two pieces of legislation this week, relating to energy. One would put limits on the EPA’s ability to limit greenhouse gases. The other would encourage commercial building tenants to save energy.

The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2014 - dubbed Tenant Star - sponsored by David McKinley (R-WV) and Peter Welch (D-VT) includes several provisions to save energy in buildings:

1. A “Tenant Star" recognition program;
2. A provision to encourage benchmarking and public disclosure of energy use in commercial buildings;
3. The Energy Efficient Government Technology Act for federal agencies to implement energy-saving information technologies and to improve efficiency of federal data centers.

The House bill has to go through the Senate and be signed by the President to become law. The measures in the House bill also are in the new version of the Senate's Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act sponsored by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH), along with other energy efficiency measures.

The House of Representatives this week also passed the “Electricity Security and Affordability Act,” which would set some restrictions on the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate power plant emissions.

Photo: US Capitol via Shutterstock