The Dirt

Given building construction and on-going energy use account for nearly 50 percent of C02 emissions, aiming for significant reducations in building sector energy use makes sense.  The American Clean Energy and Security, which recently passed the U.S. House along partisan lines, could mean dramatic changes for architects, designers, and planners. Read an analysis of emissions under the Act by World Resources Institute, and a detailed analysis on changes to the building sector from World Changing, and NRDC’s Switchboard – Part 1 and Part 2.

The Act also incorporates two separate pieces of legislation focused on using trees and green roofs to reduce energy use– The Energy Conservation Through Trees Act, and Green Resources for Energy Efficient Neighborhoods (GREEN) Act. On these two components, ASLA’s advocacy team wrote: 

“Representative Doris Matsui’s (CA) Energy Conservation through Trees Act explicitly cites the benefits of proper tree siting, including stormwater management, reduced energy load demand, and carbon sequestration. The legislation would establish a grant program to assist electricity providers in planting shade trees to insulate residential buildings and minimize home heating and cooling demands.”

“The GREEN Act, authored by Representative Ed Perlmutter (CO), allows mortgage companies to issue energy efficient mortgages, and location efficient mortgages, both of which offer incentives for reducing energy consumption. The GREEN Act also establishes energy efficient standards for residences constructed under the jurisdiction of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Most notably, Section 14 of the bill requires HUD to employ the use of green roofs, tree canopy coverage, and other site planning techniques to help reduce energy use in certain HUD facilities. The bill requires that future HUD projects minimize the impact of construction on existing landscapes, build green roofs on new buildings, and establish a goal of minimum green space and tree canopy cover.”

On the final version of ACES that passed the U.S. House, The New York Times writes that while the bill is the first major climate change legislation to pass the U.S. House, ”the bill was freighted with hundreds of pages of special-interest favors, even as environmentalists lamented that its greenhouse-gas reduction targets had been whittled down.” Yale University’s Environment 360 asked a number of leading climate change experts their opinions in their feature: ”The Waxman-Markey Bill: A Good Start, or a Non-Starter?”  

Climate Change legislation now moves to the U.S. Senate, where The New York Times blog, Dot Earth, notes a “tougher fight is anticipated.” Additional coverage on climate change legislation can also be found at the Center for American Progress’s blog, Climate Progress.