Energy Conservation LEED

generic category, despite name, include van jones green collar; see also state level attempts to gut green energy, esp by ALEC

bizarre that conservatives would trash conservation, energy independence and all that. God wants us to waste: our freedom/way of life is at stake.just knee jerk that anything gov't does is inherently bad, regulation stifle?fake/alternate/cryto certification scheme, eg clearcut lumber i get, but what so chemical co's have against LEED? i guess owen corning insulation is nota chemical co (tho they had a formaldehyde problem some years back?)

=<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.125px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: justify;">Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced he has begun legal proceedings against the Trump Administration for “violating federal law by delaying energy efficiency standards for several common consumer and commercial products.” In his statement, Schneiderman says:<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px 60px; margin: 20px 0px; font-size: 16px; border: none; width: 660px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); z-index: -1; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: "Open Sans"; letter-spacing: 0.125px;">“We won’t hesitate to use the full force of our office to protect New Yorkers.”</blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.125px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: justify;">Here is the full statement via <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/attorney-general-schneiderman-announces-lawsuit-and-other-legal-action-against-trump" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; color: rgb(153, 107, 61) !important; text-decoration: none;">AG.NY.Gov:</a><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px 60px; margin: 20px 0px; font-size: 16px; border: none; width: 660px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247); z-index: -1; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: "Open Sans"; letter-spacing: 0.125px;">Attorney General Schneiderman Announces Lawsuit And Other Legal Action Against Trump Administration For Illegally Blocking Cost-Saving, Pollution-Cutting Energy Efficiency StandardsCoalition Takes Action Against Trump DOE For Violating Federal Law By Obstructing Implementation Of Energy Efficiency Standards For Common Consumer And Commercial ProductsThese Common Sense Standards Would, Over Time, Save Consumers And Businesses Approximately $24 Billion, Provide Energy Savings Equivalent To The Annual Electricity Consumption Of 36 Million Households, And Eliminate Millions Of Tons Of Air PollutionSchneiderman: We Won’t Hesitate To Use The Full Force Of Our Office To Protect New YorkersNEW YORK – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, leading a state and municipal coalition, today announced that he is commencing legal action against the Trump Administration for violating federal law by delaying energy efficiency standards for several common consumer and commercial products - such as ceiling fans, portable air conditioners, walk-in coolers and freezers, commercial boilers, and more.The six standards being blocked by the Trump Administration offer dramatic air pollution reductions, as well as energy- and cost-savings to consumers and businesses. According to federal Department of Energy (“DOE”) estimates, the standards would combine to eliminate emissions of 292 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, 734 thousand tons of the pollution that creates soot and smog, 1.2 million tons of the potent climate change pollutant methane, and over 1,000 pounds of highly-toxic mercury, over a 30 year period....</blockquote>=acc debunk: https://www.buildinggreen.com/blog/chemical-industry-attacks-leed-buildinggreen-checks-factshttp://www.globalpossibilities.org/obama-just-released-the-biggest-energy-efficiency-rule-in-u-s-history/<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">The new rules (<a href="http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/12/f27/CUAC-CUHP%20CWAF%20Direct%20Final%20Rule.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 183, 243); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">PDF</a>), according to the Energy Department’s announcement, “will save more energy than any other standard issued by the Department to date.” Over the course of the lifetime of the new rules, the Department estimates an energy savings of 15 quadrillion BTUs or “quads” for short. In 2012, the U.S. consumed about 75 quads of energy, so this savings represents a hefty percentage, which makes this the biggest energy saving ruling in U.S. history, and will leave one heck of a mark in President Obama’s legacy.<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">A new set of energy efficiency rules—the biggest ever released by the United States government—was rolled out today. The energy-saving measures target commercial air conditioners and furnaces, which are responsible for consuming vast amounts of the nation’s energy. By tightening up the heating and cooling systems on large buildings, the Energy Department estimates business owners will save hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs, in addition to vast reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Energy than any other standard issued by the Department to date.” Over the course of the lifetime of the new rules, the Department estimates an energy savings of 15 quadrillion BTUs or “quads” for short. In 2012, the U.S. consumed about 75 quads of energy, so this savings represents a hefty percentage, which makes this the biggest energy saving ruling in U.S. history, and will leave one heck of a mark in President Obama’s legacy.<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Improving efficiency in heating and cooling systems can lead to enormous cost savings, as well as reductions in carbon emissions. On the heels of the Paris climate accord, this announcement is likely the first of many new regulations that will call for improvements to existing energy consumers. For commercial heating and cooling, the new rules will impact a huge margin of energy use. “It’s over 10 percent of all the commercial space energy, it covers heating and cooling for roughly half of commercial space,” said Ernest Moniz, secretary of energy, on the announcement of the regulation.<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Department officials estimate that, once the new rules are enacted, businesses could save as much as $167 billion over the life of the standard, as well as 885 millions tons fewer carbon dioxide emissions. Those emissions are equivalent to 186 million cars a year or 99 billion gallons of gasoline or the electricity needed to power 121 million homes for a year.

USGBC uses per-capita figures to allow for “a fair comparison of the level of green building taking place among states with significant differences in population and, accordingly, number of overall buildings.”

Benefits of LEED-certified spaces include using less <a href="http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/" onclick="gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article-int', 'http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/', 'energy');" style="font-weight: normal; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">energy</a> and <a href="http://ecowatch.com/water-news/" onclick="gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article-int', 'http://ecowatch.com/water-news/', 'water');" style="font-weight: normal; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">water</a> resources, saving money for families, businesses and taxpayers, reducing <a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article-int', 'http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/', 'carbon emissions');" style="font-weight: normal; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">carbon emissions</a> and creating a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community, according to USGBC.

Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair of USGBC, says, “This per-capita approach tells a great story about how LEED has become an important benchmark in the transformation of the nation’s built environment. LEED-certified buildings and the innovations they have driven contribute substantially to our national economic growth, create jobs and improve the quality of life in the communities where they are found.”

Based on the 2010 Census data, this fifth annual list includes building projects that were certified through 2014. Illinois maintained its place at the top of the list for the <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/18/states-top-10-leed-green-buildings/" onclick="__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article-int', 'http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/18/states-top-10-leed-green-buildings/', 'second year in a row');" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">second year in a row</a> with 174 LEED certifications. Georgia and Arizona, two newcomers to the list, “show that 2014 was a year of major growth for LEED in the South and Southwest regions of the country,” USGBC says.

Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC continue to do well, helping “the mid-Atlantic region remain the epicenter of green building across the country,” says USGBC. While Washington, DC is not included on the official list due to its status as a federal territory, it continues to lead the nation with 29.44 square feet of space per resident in 2014.

Here are the top 10 states for LEED in 2014:

A sample of notable projects, according to USGBC, that certified in these states in 2014 include:

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Illinois: The Aon Center, a 3.2 million-square-foot tower in Chicago managed by Jones Lang LaSalle, LEED Silver</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Colorado: Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s Morgridge Family Exploration Center in Denver, LEED Platinum</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maryland: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Building 26 in Greenbelt, LEED Gold</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Virginia: University of Mary Washington’s Technology Convergence Center in Fredericksburg, LEED Silver</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Massachusetts: Winchester Hospital Ambulatory Surgery Center in Winchester, LEED Gold</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hawaii: City Financial Tower in Honolulu, LEED Gold</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">California: Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, LEED Gold</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Georgia: The Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, LEED Silver</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Minnesota: Wells Fargo Center in Minneapolis, LEED Gold</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Arizona: Arizona State University Health Services renovation in Tempe, LEED Platinum</li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York: Golisano Institute for Sustainability at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, LEED Platinum</li>

</ul>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25.2px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More than 26,600 projects representing 3.6 billion square feet of space have been LEED-certified to date, with another 42,000 projects representing 8.8 billion square feet in the pipeline for certification, according to USGBC.

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2 on berman

huffpo

W YORK -- A front group for Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm Berman & Company is back with new targets: green buildings, green groups and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Berman & Co., helmed by Rick Berman (<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-rick-berman-aka-dr-evil/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">who was once called "Dr. Evil"</a> by CBS' "60 Minutes"), has a long history of running campaigns on behalf of the food and beverage industry under the banner of the <a href="http://www.consumerfreedom.com/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Center for Consumer Freedom</a>. Earlier this year, CCF changed its name to the Center for Organizational Research & Education, according to <a href="http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/BermanCORECCF.pdf" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">documents</a> filed with the Government of the District of Columbia and the North Carolina Secretary of State's Office, which were obtained by The Huffington Post. The group also recently launched the cleverly named <a href="http://environmentalpolicyalliance.org/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Environmental Policy Alliance</a>, or EPA for short, a group "devoted to uncovering the funding and hidden agendas behind environmental activist groups."

An Environmental Policy Alliance spokesperson told HuffPost that the name change is part of a "restructuring" to "broaden the work that we're doing." The CCF will continue to exist, but alongside the "EPA" under the umbrella of the Center for Organizational Research & Education.

The new Environmental Policy Alliance appears to be one of Berman's first major forays into energy and environmental policy. The new "EPA" <a href="http://epafacts.com/" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">targets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency</a>, which it deems "America's most powerful environmental activist."

Berman's <a href="http://epafacts.com/high-cost-of-red-tape/coal/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"EPA Facts" site</a> suggests that the connection between rising greenhouse gas emissions and warming temperatures is "still unclear," despite the fact that scientists have a solid understanding of the correlation. The group also argues that there are flaws in the work of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, citing reports from two well-known climate change-denying groups, the <a href="http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2013/09/09/heartland-institute-nipcc-fail-the-credibility-test/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Heartland Institute</a> and the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/george-c-marshall-institute" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">George C. Marshall Institute</a>.

CCF's Environmental Policy Alliance also launched a campaign called <a href="http://www.leedexposed.com/" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">"LEED Exposed"</a> last week, which critiques the usefulness of the U.S. Green Building Council's rating system for sustainability and efficiency of buildings. The group's "research" purports to show that "LEED-certified buildings use more energy and are more expensive" than uncertified buildings.

"This latest data release only confirms what we already knew: LEED certification is little more than a fancy plaque displayed by these 'green' buildings," Berman staffer Anastasia Swearingen said in a <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leed-certification-fails-to-increase-energy-efficiency-says-environmental-policy-alliance-247899251.html" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="font-weight: normal; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">press release</a> announcing the launch of the campaign on Feb. 28.

Swearingen <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/12/13/those-green-schools-you-hear-about-arent-so-green-after-all/" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">also wrote an anti-LEED op-ed</a> for Forbes in December 2013, arguing, "we're clearly not spending that money wisely."

A closer look at LEED Exposed's methodology reveals a significant omission. The report concludes that, as a whole, LEED-certified buildings in Washington, D.C., use more energy than buildings without the certification. But the analysis only looks at the energy use of buildings relative to size, or what is known as <a href="http://www.energystar.gov/buildings/facility-owners-and-managers/existing-buildings/use-portfolio-manager/understand-metrics/what-energy" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">energy use intensity</a>.

EUI is only one of several recognized benchmarks used by building professionals to assess a building's efficiency, and looking at it in isolation ignores the importance of building density. Thus a large, abandoned building would score well for EUI, because its energy use is quite low relative to size.

"Their goal is just to confuse you," Scot Horst, the senior vice president of LEED at the U.S. Green Building Council, told HuffPost. Most Americans are unfamiliar with terms like energy use intensity, he explained, and may not fully grasp the complexities of assessing efficiency. EUI is "only a very partial snapshot of what's happening," according to Horst, and ignoring other measurements "leads to very unfair comparisons."

Groups like the American Chemistry Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represent the wood, plastics and vinyl industries, have <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/leed-bashing-plastic-people-join-lumber-industry-trying-get-feds-drop-leed.html" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">bashed LEED in the past</a>.

Swearingen told HuffPost that the alliance doesn't solely represent business interests, arguing that all Americans have a vested interest in affordable energy.

"Berman makes his money as a corporate hired gun, setting up front groups to denigrate public interest organizations that threaten his clients' bottom lines," Melanie Sloan, executive director for the nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told HuffPost. "I'm not surprised he's attacking groups and agencies focused on the environment, given the deep pockets of those interested in paying to stop climate change legislation and regulation."

"These methods of attack rely on the way people read media," Horst added. "They rely on creating confusion."

<a href="http://pus.sagepub.com/content/18/1/23.abstract" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Manufacturing doubt</a> around scientific issues and sowing confusion <a href="http://archive.pressthink.org/2009/04/12/hesaid_shesaid.html" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">through the media</a> is a well-documented industry strategy -- one that <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/hidden-interests-dr-evils-payday" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Berman has often employed</a>.

Berman & Co. has previously attacked organizations like the <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/02/rick-berman-funded-oscar-night-slam-humane-society" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Humane Society of the United States</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/us/politics/18berman.html?r=0" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mothers Against Drunk Driving</a>, and campaigned against minimum-wage increases and unionization.

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<h4 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1em; vertical-align: baseline;">Related on TreeHugger.com:</h4>

<li style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/leed-bashing-plastic-people-join-lumber-industry-trying-get-feds-drop-leed.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">LEED Bashing: Plastic People Join The Lumber Industry in Trying To Get The Feds To Drop LEED</a></li>

<li style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/formaldehyde-should-not-be-our-houses-no-matter-how-natural-big-chem-says-it.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Formaldehyde Should Not Be In Our Houses, No Matter How "Natural" Big Chem Says It Is</a></li>

<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/leed-bashing-how-wood-wars-are-hurting-leed-and-all-green-building.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">LEED-Bashing: SFI Couldn't Join LEED, So Now It Is Out To Destroy It.</a></li>

<li style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/leed-bashing-government-study-finds-equivalence-between-leed-and-green-globes.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">LEED Bashing: Government Study Finds "Equivalence" Between LEED and Green Globes</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

Tags: <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/tag/green-building/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Green Building</a> | <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/tag/leed/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">LEED</a>

==

<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">I have called it the<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/rumble-in-the-lumberyard-fsc-wins-this-round.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Rumble in the Lumberyard</a>; Artist/activist Franke James calls it the<a href="http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=5705" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">War in the Woods</a>. It was the long-running battle by the <a href="http://www.sfiprogram.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)</a> to get recognition for their wood certification system in the LEED green building certification system, which only recognizes wood certified by the <a href="http://www.fscus.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) </a>. I will not go into the <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/rumble-in-the-lumberyard-fsc-wins-this-round.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">merits of their argument</a> here, that has been the subject of many a post that can be found in the related links to the left.

What is more important is that, having failed to get into the LEED rating system, Kathy Abusow and SFI have changed tactics, and now appear to be out to destroy it.

After I wrote<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/congress-goes-through-ban-green-building-department-defense.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> Congress Goes Through With Ban On Green Building at Department of Defense</a>, Lawyer Chris Cheatham noted that the ban was rooted in the wood wars,<a href="http://www.greenbuildinglawupdate.com/2011/12/articles/codes-and-regulations/federal/congress-restricts-leed-spending/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">quoting a senator</a> who says he believes LEED inaccurately evaluates wood products:

</blockquote>

(More on the Green Building initiative <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/coming-soon-greenwashed-lumber.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">here</a> and<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/understanding-labels-part-2-separating-green-building-from-greenwash.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> here</a>)

Republicans like Senator Wicker have taken up the cause of SFI because President Kathy Abusow has wrapped herself in the flag and pronounced it to be the patriotic thing to do. Paula Melton quotes her in <a href="http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2012/2/23/Are-FSC-and-LEED-Killing-American-Jobs-A-Look-at-the-Evidence" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">BuildingGreen:</a>

"100% of SFI-certified forests are in North America," said Kathy Abusow, president and CEO of SFI. "90% of FSC forests are outside the U.S. You don't have to be a statistician to know that not recognizing SFI is a problem for domestic forests, communities, products, and jobs."

</blockquote>

Well, in fact you do, because it is a meaningless point. FSC happens to be international, but but certifies lots of American wood; SFI was set up by American lumber interests specifically because they didn't like silly things in FSC such as respecting workers' rights and indigenous people. But bashing Europe always plays well in certain political circles. It played particularly well in Maine, which has essentially <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/state-maine-bans-use-leed-state-construction.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">banned LEED certification because it favors FSC</a>.

Paula connects the dots of the two attacks on LEED :

Senator Roger Wicker and Maine Governor Paul LePage both attempted to make an economic argument for their choices. By promoting FSC lumber, the claim goes, the LEED rating systems harm producers of homegrown forestry products--hurting the economy and killing jobs.

</blockquote>

The issue is a lot bigger than SFI vs FSC and a stupid single point in LEED; it is a question of the survival of the green building movement, as it is rolled back by Republicans in Congress and by anti-green Tea Party controlled State governments.

</blockquote>

Read more at <a href="http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2012/2/23/Are-FSC-and-LEED-Killing-American-Jobs-A-Look-at-the-Evidence" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">BuildingGreen</a>

</div>

<h4 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; line-height: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Related on TreeHugger.com:</h4>

<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/understanding-labels-part-2-separating-green-building-from-greenwash.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Understanding Labels Part 2: Separating Green Building from Greenwash</a></li>

<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/state-maine-bans-use-leed-state-construction.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">State of Maine Bans Use Of LEED In State Construction</a></li>

<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/rumble-in-the-lumberyard-fsc-vs-sfi.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Rumble in the Lumberyard: FSC vs SFI</a></li>

<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/congress-goes-through-ban-green-building-department-defense.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Congress Goes Through With Ban On Green Building at Department of Defense</a></li>

<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.428571em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/rumble-in-the-lumberyard-fsc-wins-this-round.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Rumble In The Lumberyard: FSC Wins This Round</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

==Berman front:

<h1 class="title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 36px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">'Environmental Policy Alliance,' PR Firm Front Group, Targets LEED, Green Groups And EPA</h1>

<div>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/07/environmental-policy-alliance-berman_n_4913303.html?view=print&comm_ref=false</div>

===

huffpo berman

Swearingen <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/12/13/those-green-schools-you-hear-about-arent-so-green-after-all/" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;">also wrote an anti-LEED op-ed</a> for Forbes in December 2013, arguing, "we're clearly not spending that money wisely."

A closer look at LEED Exposed's methodology reveals a significant omission. The report concludes that, as a whole, LEED-certified buildings in Washington, D.C., use more energy than buildings without the certification. But the analysis only looks at the energy use of buildings relative to size, or what is known as<a href="http://www.energystar.gov/buildings/facility-owners-and-managers/existing-buildings/use-portfolio-manager/understand-metrics/what-energy" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">energy use intensity</a>.

Groups like the American Chemistry Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represent the wood, plastics and vinyl industries, have <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/leed-bashing-plastic-people-join-lumber-industry-trying-get-feds-drop-leed.html" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">bashed LEED in the past</a>.

Swearingen told HuffPost that the alliance doesn't solely represent business interests, arguing that all Americans have a vested interest in affordable energy.

"These methods of attack rely on the way people read media," Horst added. "They rely on creating confusion."

The Environmental Policy Alliance also ran a <a href="http://www.biggreenradicals.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/BGR-WSJ-Ad.jpg" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">full-page ad in Thursday's Wall Street Journal</a>, claiming that the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Food & Water Watch "are using scare tactics and junk science to push policies that increase the cost of energy."

"This feeble attempt at a smear campaign is a good reminder to always consider the source," an NRDC spokesperson told HuffPost. "As opposed to this newly re-named front group, we've been around for decades. We cite our research. We sign our names on our materials. And we don't lurk in the shadows because there's no reason to hide our good work to protect our air, our water and our communities."

=TreeHugger has covered how the Sustainable Forest Initiative is trying to gut LEED by getting the Federal Government to drop it; (see <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/leed-bashing-how-wood-wars-are-hurting-leed-and-all-green-building.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">LEED-Bashing: SFI Couldn't Join LEED, So Now It Is Out To Destroy It.</a>) Now the Plastics industry is piling on, worried about LEED 2012's imagined restrictions on PVC. A "bi-partisan" group of congressmen have written<a href="http://pompeo.house.gov/UploadedFiles/LEED_Letter.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"> a letter to the GSA about LEED:</a><blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 1em 1em 0.25em; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; border-radius: 5px; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);">We are deeply concerned that the LEED rating system is becoming a tool to punish chemical companies and plastics makers and spread misinformation about materials that have been at the forefront of improving environmental performance—and even occupant safety—and in buildings. This transformation into an anti-chemical system runs counter to the government’s objectives of increasing energy efficiency and utilizes a European standard called REACH. US manufacturers have no ability to participate in the development. LEED 2012 not only threatens jobs, it will almost certainly cost taxpayers money. The arbitrary chemical restrictions in the two proposed credits could affect many energy-efficient construction products, such as insulation, roofing, wiring and energy-efficient windows, putting a further strain on already tight federal budgets.</blockquote>Yes, the evil European REACH must never reach America's shores; <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/race-to-reach-chemicals-illegal-in-europe-if-not-registered-by-1-december.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">as Chemist Christine notes,</a> the REACH program requires that " every chemical used in quantities over one ton must be proven to be safe for human health and the environment by the chemical companies that profit from that chemical. If a chemical has risks, the industry must prove that the benefits to society outweigh the risks, which must also be carefully controlled."The chemical industry would never put up with that. That's<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/93003545/LEED-Consensus-Ltr-for-Hearing-Broun" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"> why they just wrote a letter</a> to the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, which is looking at the Science of Green Rating Systems in the continuing Republican attack on LEED and green building. They write:<blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 1em 1em 0.25em; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; border-radius: 5px; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);">Technical standards must be developed and evaluated on their technical merits, and this means based on scientific data. A technical standard that is not basedon technical data fails on delivery and is unusable. USGBC must adopt true science based consensus approaches or risk the federal government being unable to rely upon LEED. In our view, any portion of LEED 2012 that has been developed where there is a process failure – including a failure to fully and fairly consider science-based input from the signatories to this letter – cannot be adopted by a federal agency.</blockquote>But of course, REACH, which is rigidly scientific, is not to be considered at all. Meanwhile, David Scott at<a href="http://ohiogreenbuildinglaw.com/2012/05/26/my-dysfunctional-leed-2012-chemical-romance/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"> Ohio Green Building Law</a> notes that LEED doesn't prohibit vinyl at all:<blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 1em 1em 0.25em; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; border-radius: 5px; background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);">The latest draft of LEED 2012 doesn’t “eliminate” any of the chemicals or products referenced in the letter. Rather, the<a href="https://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=18913" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"> credit at issue</a> (“Avoidance of Chemicals of Concern”) has already been modified to incentivize use of less harmful products and materials; it does not punish or “eliminate” anything.</blockquote>It does, however, give up to two points for having building products that comply with REACH, which is not unreasonable at all; if the American government isn't going to insist that real scientific research be done to determine which chemicals are safe or not, you go where the data are.The<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/93003545/LEED-Consensus-Ltr-for-Hearing-Broun" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"> signatories of the letter</a> reads like a Who's Who of every vinyl and plastic lobbyist in the Country:Center For Environmental Innovation in Roofing 
National Association of Manufacturers
American Coatings Association
Resilient Floor Covering Institute
The Vinyl Institute
The Vinyl Siding Institute
The Vinyl Building Coalition
The Plastic Pipe and Fittings Association
Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates
Flexible Vinyl Alliance
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association
EPDM Roofing Association
Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association
SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association
The Adhesive and Sealant Council
The American Chemistry Council
American Architectural Manufacturers Association
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Single Ply Roofing Institute
Chemical Fabrics And Film AssociationUnfortunately, these industries employ a lot of people and spend a lot of money buying their politicians. They don't want the idea of REACH to touch these shores. They are bigger and more powerful than their buddies in the lumber biz, and will twist arms and stuff pockets of Republicans and Democrats alike....http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/leed-bashing-plastic-people-join-lumber-industry-trying-get-feds-drop-leed.html

markey <span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0.532px; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;">American Renewable Energy and Efficiency Act oct 2013

<a href="http://www.markey.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=346975">http://www.markey.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=346975</a>

===

wiki:

Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.113s1392" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">S. 1392</a>) is a bill that was introduced into the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">United States Senate</a> during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/113th_United_States_Congress" title="113th United States Congress" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">113th United States Congress</a>. The overall purpose of the bill was to reduce energy waste by increasing energy efficiency in the United States. Among its many provisions, the bill includes measures to improve building codes, assist manufactures in becoming more energy efficient, and increase conservation efforts at federal agencies.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-hillWHstatement-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[1]</a>

<h2 style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; background-image: none;">Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">hide</a>] </div>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#Provisions_of_the_bill" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">1 Provisions of the bill</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#Procedural_history" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2 Procedural history</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#Senate" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2.1 Senate</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#President" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">2.2 President</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#Debate_and_discussion" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">3 Debate and discussion</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#Notes.2FReferences" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">5 Notes/References</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">6 External links</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1875px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Provisions of the bill<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Provisions of the bill" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 would amend the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energy_Conservation_and_Production_Act&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Energy Conservation and Production Act (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Energy Conservation and Production Act</a> to direct the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Energy" title="United States Department of Energy" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Secretary of Energy</a> (DOE) to: (1) support the development and updating of national model building energy codes for residential and commercial buildings to enable the achievement of aggregate energy savings targets established by this Act, (2) encourage and support the adoption by states and local governments of building energy codes that meet or exceed the national codes, and (3) support full compliance with state and local codes.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

The bill would direct the Secretary to provide grants to establish building training and assessment centers at institutions of higher learning to identify and promote opportunities, concepts, and technologies for expanding building energy and environmental performance.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a> It would also require the Secretary to make grants to eligible nonprofit partnerships to pay the federal share of career skills training programs to help students obtain a certification to install energy efficient buildings technologies.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 would amend the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Independence_and_Security_Act_of_2007" title="Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007" style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007</a> to: (1) replace references to the energy-intensive industries program with references to the future of industry program, and (2) reduce the amount authorized to be appropriated for the Zero Net Energy Commercial Buildings Initiative for FY2015-FY2018.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

The bill would require the Administrator of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Administration" title="Small Business Administration" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Small Business Administration</a> (SBA) to expedite consideration of applications from eligible small businesses for loans under the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Act" title="Small Business Act" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Small Business Act</a> to implement recommendations of industrial research and assessment centers.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 would amend the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Policy_and_Conservation_Act" title="Energy Policy and Conservation Act" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Energy Policy and Conservation Act</a> to require the Secretary: (1) as part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Energy_Efficiency_and_Renewable_Energy" title="Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy</a>, to conduct on-site technical assessments at the request of a manufacturer to identify opportunities for maximizing the energy efficiency of industrial processes and cross-cutting systems, preventing pollution and minimizing waste, improving efficient use of water in manufacturing processes, and conserving natural resources; and (2) as part of the DOE's industrial efficiency programs, to carry out an industry-government partnership program to research, develop, and demonstrate new sustainable manufacturing and industrial technologies and processes that maximize the energy efficiency of industrial systems, reduce pollution, and conserve natural resources.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

The bill would establish within the DOE a Supply Star program to identify and promote practices, recognize companies, and recognize products that use highly efficient supply chains that conserve energy, water, and other resources.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

The bill would also direct the Secretary to establish a rebate program for expenditures for the purchase and installation of: (1) a new constant speed electric motor control that is attached to an electric motor and reduces motor energy use by at least 5%; and (2) commercial or industrial machinery or equipment that is manufactured and incorporates an advanced motor and drive system that has greater than one horsepower into a redesigned machine or equipment that did not previously make use of the system or was previously used and placed back into service in 2014 or 2015 that upgrades the existing machine or equipment with such system.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

The bill would direct the Secretary to establish a rebate program for expenditures made by owners of industrial or manufacturing facilities, commercial buildings, and multifamily residential buildings for the purchase and installation of new energy efficient transformers.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a> It would terminate the program on December 31, 2015.

The bill also directs the Secretary to issue guidance for federal agencies to employ advanced tools promoting energy efficiency and energy savings through the use of information and communications technologies.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

The bill would authorize the Administrator of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Services_Administration" title="General Services Administration" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">General Services Administration</a> (GSA), for any building project for which congressional approval has been received and the design has been substantially completed, but the construction of which has not begun, to use appropriated funds to update the building's design to meet energy efficiency and other standards for new federal buildings.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

Finally, the bill would require the Administrator for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Office_of_E-Government_and_Information_Technology&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Office of E-Government and Information Technology (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Office of E-Government and Information Technology</a> within the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Management_and_Budget" title="Office of Management and Budget" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Office of Management and Budget</a> (OMB) to develop and publish a goal for the total amount of planned energy and cost savings and increased productivity by the government through the consolidation of federal data centers during the next five years.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a> It would provide that such goal does not apply to the High Performance Computing Modernization Program of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense" title="United States Department of Defense" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">United States Department of Defense</a> (DOD).<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392sum-2" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[2]</a>

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1875px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Procedural history<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Procedural history" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

<h3 style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1875px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Senate<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Senate" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">edit</a>]</h3>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.1875px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">The Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 was introduced into the Senate on July 30, 2013 by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Shaheen" title="Jeanne Shaheen" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392allactions-3" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[3]</a> On September 11, 2013, the Senate voted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unanimous_consent" title="Unanimous consent" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">unanimous consent</a> to proceed to consideration of the measure and began consideration on September 12, 2013.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-1392allactions-3" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[3]</a>

<h3 style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1875px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: President" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">edit</a>]</h3>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.1875px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">On September 11, 2013, President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama" title="Barack Obama" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Barack Obama</a>'s office released a <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/113/saps1392s_20130911.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 18px; background-image: url(" http="http" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">Statement of Administration Policy on S. 1392</a>, in which the Administration indicated that they support S. 1392.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-hillWHstatement-1" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[1]</a> The Administration argued that the bill "complements key energy efficiency dimensions of the President’s Climate Action Plan."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-whitehouse1-4" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[4]</a>

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1875px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Debate and discussion<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Debate and discussion" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

<p style="margin: 0.4em 0px 0.5em; line-height: 19.1875px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">In a joint op-ed for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politico" title="Politico" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Politico</a>, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Rob Portman wrote that their bills "will go a long way toward making the United States more energy efficient and more economically competitive."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-opedShaheen-5" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[5]</a> The two argued that their "bill curbs inefficient energy practices that cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars and millions of jobs every year."<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-opedShaheen-5" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[5]</a> The two also argue that their bill makes use of voluntary measures to accomplish these savings.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_note-opedShaheen-5" style="text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap; background-image: none;">[5]</a>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bills_in_the_113th_United_States_Congress" title="List of bills in the 113th United States Congress" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">List of bills in the 113th United States Congress</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Energy" title="United States Department of Energy" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">United States Department of Energy</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States" title="Energy in the United States" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Energy in the United States</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_energy_use" title="Efficient energy use" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Efficient energy use</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_conservation_in_the_United_States" title="Energy conservation in the United States" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Energy conservation in the United States</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_the_United_States" title="Energy policy of the United States" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">Energy policy of the United States</a></li>

</ul>

<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1875px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Notes/References<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Notes/References" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

<li id="cite_note-hillWHstatement-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-hillWHstatement_1-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style=" top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up to:a</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-hillWHstatement_1-1" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">b</a> Geman, Ben (11 September 2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/321683-white-house-backs-senate-energy-efficiency-bill-cheers-white-house-agenda" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">"White House backs Senate energy efficiency bill"</a>. The Hill. Retrieved 18 September 2013.</li>

<li id="cite_note-1392sum-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style=" top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up to:a</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-1" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">b</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-2" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">c</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-3" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">d</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-4" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">e</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-5" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">f</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-6" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">g</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-7" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">h</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-8" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">i</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-9" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">j</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-10" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">k</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-11" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">l</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-12" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">m</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392sum_2-13" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">n</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/senate-bill/1392" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">"S. 1392 - Summary"</a>. United States Congress. Retrieved 18 September 2013.</li>

<li id="cite_note-1392allactions-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392allactions_3-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style=" top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up to:a</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-1392allactions_3-1" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">b</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/1392/all-actions/" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">"S. 1392 - All Actions"</a>. United States Congress. Retrieved 18 September 2013.</li>

<li id="cite_note-whitehouse1-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-whitehouse1_4-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style=" top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up^{</a>} <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/113/saps1392s_20130911.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 18px; background-image: url(" http="http" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">"Statement of Administration Policy - S. 1392"</a>. Executive Office of the President. Retrieved 18 September 2013.</li>

<li id="cite_note-opedShaheen-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-opedShaheen_5-0" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;"><span class="cite-accessibility-label" style=" top: -99999px; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;">Jump up to:a</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-opedShaheen_5-1" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">b</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013#cite_ref-opedShaheen_5-2" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">c</a> Jeanne Shaheen; Rob Portman (29 July 2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/making-shaheen-portman-energy-efficiency-94875.html" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">"Making case for energy efficiency"</a>. Politico. Retrieved 18 September 2013.</li>

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<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1875px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">External links<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; padding-right: 0.25em; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: External links" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

<table><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image" style=" border: none; padding: 2px 0px 2px 0.9em; text-align: center;"><img src="/b1b6f1db-d4d7-543f-9b57-951087a0eb1a.png"/></td><td class="mbox-text plainlist" style=" border: none; padding: 0.25em 0.9em; width: 161.75px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikisource" title="Wikisource" style="text-decoration: none; padding: 0px !important; background-image: none !important;">Wikisource</a> has original text related to this article:

<div style=" margin-left: 10px;"><a href="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Energy_Savings_and_Industrial_Competitiveness_Act_of_2013(S.1392;_113th_Congress)" class="extiw" title="wikisource:Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 (S. 1392; 113th Congress)" style="text-decoration: none; padding: 0px !important; background-image: none !important;">Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 (S. 1392; 113th Congress)</a></div>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.113s1392" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">Library of Congress - Thomas S. 1392</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/senate-bill/1392" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">beta.congress.gov S. 1392</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s1392" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">GovTrack.us S. 1392</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.opencongress.org/bill/113-s1392/show" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">OpenCongress.org S. 1392</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/113_SN_1392.html" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 13px; background-image: url(" data:image="data:image" png="png" base64="base64" ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaaaoaaaakcayaaacnms="iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs" aaaaveleqvr42n3pgqkaiaheuxdqj3dqj3e6iotpusqcgj4eq5iluile0jil3pecxhchgbhz8kg4hwxau3mzecgeyfnaxp4hqnqpnt7ql0nadpd6whcclvnakksq8iiaaaaaaelftksuqmcc="AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" xmlns:data="data">WashingtonWatch.com S. 1392</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/113/saps1392s_20130911.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; padding-right: 18px; background-image: url(" http="http" upload.wikimedia.org="upload.wikimedia.org" wikipedia="wikipedia" commons="commons" icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif="Icons-mini-file_acrobat.gif" background-position="background-position" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat">Statement of Administration Policy from President Obama on S. 1392</a></li>

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The amendments and executive orders never actually mention <a href="http://www.usgbc.org/leed" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">LEED</a> by name. They ban new construction built with public money from seeking (or requiring) any green building certification that’s not recognized by something called the American National Standards Institute, or that doesn’t treat all certifications for wood products equally. But that’s really just a mouthful meant to ensure no more LEED-certified courthouses or state offices or libraries.

Behind the bans are a group of industries — primarily conventional timber, plastics, and chemicals — unhappy that much of their product goes unrecognized by the LEED standard created by the <a href="http://www.usgbc.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">U.S. Green Building Council</a>. LEED now certifies a million and a half square feet of real estate a day, affixing a “green” label onto public buildings, commercial offices, and private homes that rack up points on a 100-point scale and rewards things like locally sourced materials and energy-efficient design.

Using lumber clear-cut from the side of a sensitive stream half a continent away does not, in short, get you anything.

“Certain things haven’t made the cut,” says Lane Burt, USGBC’s policy director. “As a result we’ve seen some political agitation, basically a much more threatening posture saying ‘if you don’t change this about LEED, or give us more points, we’ll use our constitutional rights to petition government to take LEED away.’”

Mississippi was the <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/leed-bashing-mississippi-senator-slips-anti-leed-amendment-housing-and-transportation-bills.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">most recent state to do this</a>, with an amendment just tacked on to a transportation and housing appropriations bill. Alabama and Georgia have done the same through executive order. An industry coalition is also trying to push <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/plastic-people-are-it-again-sneaking-leed-bashing-clauses-appropriations-bill.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">similar language through Congress</a> that would cover new construction from the largest property manager in the country, the federal government. (Treehugger has a good long-running history <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/tag/leed/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">of all of this</a>).

The industry objections have grown in direct proportion to LEED’s prominence. Thirty-four states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have policies either requiring LEED construction or establishing strong incentives for it in public buildings. The federal government <a href="http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/24895" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">does, too</a>. The industries that now oppose LEED — even as they remain members of the USGBC voting on changes to the certification — aren’t out to ban green building, per se. Rather, they’ve come up with their own standards for what counts as “green.”

Instead of LEED, they’ve got something called <a href="http://www.greenglobes.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Green Globes</a>. Instead of the “Forest Stewardship Council” certification (which LEED recognizes for wood products), they’ve created the <a href="http://www.sfiprogram.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Sustainable Forestry Initiative</a> program. Suffice it to say, these certifications have laxer standards.

To environmental groups, the sleight-of-hand tactic is actually more insidious than if industry were trying to politicize green building all together.

“What they’re trying to do,” Sierra Club activist Jason Grant says of the timber industry, “is protect their core business model, which largely relies on large-scale clear cutting and replanting.” The Forest Stewardship Council demands costlier and more sustainable practices. “The conservation community is united in opposition to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, not because it doesn’t have any merit, but because it is trying to pass off fundamentally status quo, barely legal forestry practices as green and sustainable. Look at the name — the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. That is what is at the heart of the conflict.”

The industry-led <a href="http://www.betterbuildingstandards.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">American High-Performance Buildings Coalition</a> (URL: betterbuildingstandards.com) puts it <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/commentary-more-voices-need-to-be-heard-when-setting-green-standards/2013/07/19/4fd8200a-ed63-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">a little differently</a>. LEED, they argue, lacks transparency, “shuts out stakeholders,” isn’t built on “consensus.”

LEED’s own defenders (including Grant) acknowledge that the system <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2013/01/good-and-important-it-leed-can-be-so-embarrassing/4435/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">isn’t infallible</a>. The entire exercise of rating green buildings is inevitably fraught; environmentalists themselves don’t agree on many items in the certification. The latest version of LEED passed this summer with <a href="http://www.usgbc.org/articles/usgbc%E2%80%99s-leed-v4-passes-ballot-and-will-launch-fall" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">86 percent of the vote</a> of the USGBC’s 13,000 members. That would count as a sweeping victory in a democracy. But if “consensus” means everybody, it obviously isn’t that.

The entire dispute over the forestry practices behind the lumber that goes into these buildings actually revolves around a single point in the 100-point LEED system. And a building receives that point if just half of its permanently installed wood is FSC certified. A LEED building can contain any kind of wood under the sun. It just may not get that point. (For comparison’s sake, if you use locally sourced but less sustainable wood, that counts toward two points.)

All of this means that one industry with a vested interest in the smallest sliver of an entire green-building rating system has so far been successful in undermining the whole model in a few states. And the standards set by government construction have the potential to cascade into the private market, too.

For LEED, this battle is a perverse sign of its expanding influence. But it’s unclear if the many proponents of green building — including all the businesses that have grown up around it — are ready yet to mount the kind of defense that could keep LEED from becoming another wedge between red states and blue ones.

“I think we are at an inflection point,” Burt says. “The green building industry has grown to 45 percent of the marketplace in new construction. That’s significant growth. It’s become a real industry. And if these political attacks from certain sub-components, certain special interests are going to continue, the green building industry needs to get a lot more politically savvy.”

He doesn’t mean that the nonprofit USGBC needs to become a political heavyweight. “There’s no nonprofit,” he says, “that’s going to match the lobbying clout of the timber industry.”

The USGBC, he says, is content to compete with other certifications. But that’s not the scenario these state laws would create. Instead, they would effectively ban LEED. “That’s a huge escalation,” Burt says.

<div class="row clearfix" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; width: 230px;"><a itemprop="author" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-sheppard" class="float_left arial_14 bold color_222222 line_height_normal" rel="author" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-decoration: none; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; line-height: normal; float: left; font-weight: bold !important;">Kate Sheppard</a></div>

<a href="mailto:kate.sheppard@huffingtonpost.com" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-decoration: none; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer;">kate.sheppard@huffingtonpost.com</a>

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<h1 class="title-news" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 20px 0px 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; line-height: 36px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Senate Energy Efficiency Bill: Better Luck Next Week?</h1>

<p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; text-indent: 1.5em; text-align: justify;"><span class="posted-and-updated" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; text-indent: 0px !important;">Posted: <span itemprop="datePublished" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible;">09/13/2013 1:04 pm EDT  |  Updated: <span itemprop="dateModified" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">09/13/2013 2:13 pm EDT

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<p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; text-indent: 1.5em; text-align: justify; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Senate wrapped up work Thursday evening without getting much closer to a vote on proposed <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/energy-efficiency-legislation_n_3909361.html" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; cursor: pointer; text-indent: 0px !important;">energy efficiency legislation</a>. It's not expected to be debated again until sometime next week.

Chunks of Thursday were spent debating not the bipartisan bill from Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), but other issues -– including Obamacare and the Keystone XL pipeline.

The bill brings together several efficiency measures, including improved building codes, incentives for the use of more efficient products, and funding for research and development of more energy-efficient technologies.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) sought to introduce an amendment to the bill that would delay the implementation of health care reform's individual mandate for one year. "I have nothing against this bill and the provisions of it," said Vitter. "I support the vast majority of the provisions of this bill."

At one point, Vitter offered to hold off on the amendment in exchange for a separate vote on his measure next week.

Democrats accused Vitter and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of trying to block the efficiency measure. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said that Vitter was holding the bill "hostage" and spending "an appreciable amount of time undermining that bipartisan foundation" of the bill with the amendment.

"I'm not blocking anything," said Vitter. "I'm proposing making amendments."

Several senators, both Democrats and Republicans, made floor speeches calling on the State Department to expedite review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. "We've been waiting five years," said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). "We fought a world war and defeated the Nazis in less time."

Shaheen said in a statement to The Huffington Post that she and Portman are "encouraged by the bipartisan support for our energy efficiency bill."

"Many bipartisan amendments have already been introduced and we’re hoping to [have] a robust debate on each of them."

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