Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) helped achieve a victory for common sense, conservative energy solutions with her sponsorship of the Better Buildings Act within the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act signed into law on Thursday, April 30th.
The act promotes energy efficient technologies used by commercial building tenants, by creating a new, voluntary certification to reward and recognize tenants who choose to construct high performance leased spaces to reduce energy consumption and utility costs. Additionally the bill asks the Department of Energy to study and learn from private sector “best practices” of how commercially-leased spaces are designed to achieve high performance and help reduce utility costs for businesses.
“This bipartisan legislation is an important step toward increasing energy efficiency across the public and private sectors,” said Ayotte. “I’m also pleased the bill includes our Better Buildings Act, a commonsense, no-cost measure that would incentivize commercial tenants to voluntarily implement cost-effective measures to responsibly reduce energy consumption.”
Dozens of organizations from the real estate sector, construction industry and environmental advocacy, among others have endorsed the bill, including the Real Estate Roundtable, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the American Institute of Architects, the National Association of Home Builders, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the Real Estate Roundtable, and the U.S. Green Building Council.
Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions would like to extend a thank you to Senator Ayotte, for tirelessly working towards securing America’s energy future.
“We thank Senator Ayotte for her continued leadership on common sense solutions that encourage us to use the energy we produce wisely. We need a no regrets energy policy that ensures we can have a strong economy and a secure environmental legacy,” said Executive Director James Dozier. “Senator Ayotte understands that any solutions must ensure we have a reliable and clean energy supply, while reducing how much of it we consume.”