The National Public Radio show Here & Now covered U.S. energy policy earlier this week calling energy efficiency a potential winner in the new Republican-controlled Congress. The recorded story can be heard at http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/13/energy-efficiency-congress.
From the Here & Now Contributors Network, Inside Energy reporter Jordan Wirfs-Brock visits with Shanti Pless of the National Renewable Energy Lab–the world’s largest zero energy building–learning about the energy efficiency aspects of that project. Pless explains that some of the technologies installed in the building are cutting edge, but many are things that can be done right now with best practice design. “These practices could be a lot more common if a bill known as Shaheen-Portman passes through Congress,” Wirfs-Brock states.
The story shares a history of the troubled Shaheen-Portman legislation and reasons it has not passed in the Senate. But despite stalling in Congress, private industry is moving forward with energy efficiency in buildings and new hope for passing Shaheen-Portman in the new Congress would mean more opportunities in the future.