Obama Wants to Cut Energy Use in Federal Buildings
President-elect Barack Obama wants to use his economic aid plan to cut energy use in federal buildings, a long-sought goal that has achieved mixed success.
"If we do that effectively, then over the long term we are going to save billions of dollars in energy costs for the federal government and for taxpayers," Obama said at a news conference. A new White House official, with the title "performance officer" will help keep track of the effort.
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The idea of reducing energy consumption goes back to the energy crisis of the 1970s. It lost momentum when energy prices fell, but has regained interest in Congress and at the White House. Over the past decade new legislation and several presidential orders set ambitious goals.
Despite some progress, those efforts have suffered from too little money for upfront investments in energy conservation and from bureaucratic speed bumps, according to energy efficiency advocates.
The government spends an estimated $17 billion a year, about one-third of it to heat, cool and light government buildings, according to the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress.
In the 2006 budget year, for example, the government spent $6.2 billion just on facilities belonging to 21 agencies, a little more than half by the Defense Department, the Office of Management and Budget reported. That is the latest year for which data could be obtained Wednesday; energy costs have risen since that year.
Two presidential orders and legislation passed by Congress in 2005 and 2007 called for cutting energy use in thousands of federal buildings by 3 percent a year or 30 percent by 2015, when compared with 2003 levels.
Success toward meeting those goals has proved uneven.
The GAO report, which examined the 2007 budget year, said all but one of the 21 agencies and departments met their reduction goals. Some did so by using "credits" earned by increasing use of renewable fuels, instead of actually cutting consumption.
The report questioned whether long-range reduction goals up to 2015 could be achieved without more money and greater priority.
The GAO said the Energy Department's own estimates suggest investments of $1.1 billion a year are needed to achieve the energy efficiency goals for 2015. The Alliance to Save Energy, a private advocacy group, estimates it at $1.5 billion a year.
In 2007, the government invested $640 million. At that rate, the GAO predicted an estimated $5.3 billion gap in the money needed to met the goals from Congress and in presidential orders.
The GAO also said it is difficult to assess the energy efficiency effort because goals and the federal properties in the program have changed over the years. Some government buildings are exempt because they involve national security and other critical activities.
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