Breaking News: U.S. House Passes Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2014

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2014 (HR 2126).

Sponsored by Representatives David McKinley (R-WV) and Peter Welch (D-VT), the bill includes several provisions to save energy in buildings:

• The Better Buildings Act to encourage commercial building tenants to save energy through a "Tenant Star" recognition program and green leases that all benefit from the cost savings;
• A provision to encourage benchmarking and public disclosure of energy use in commercial buildings, following a strategy several cities around the country have adopted to encourage more efficiency;
• The Energy Efficient Government Technology Act for federal agencies to develop strategies to implement energy-saving information technologies from building energy management to telework, and to improve efficiency of federal data centers, and
• A provision to address concerns that recent efficiency standards for water heaters could interfere with their use in demand response programs run by rural and other utilities.

The bill will now move on to the Senate. We'll keep you updated on the progress of the bill.