Federal agencies are saving millions of dollars annually by becoming more energy efficient, but the government could do even better by taking advantage of energy-saving products and services, a new report says.
The Alliance to Save Energy, a Washington-based nonprofit coalition of energy professionals, said the federal government could save an additional $1 billion a year if energy efficiency took greater precedence in agency procurement programs. The alliance also said the federal government is using more energy per square foot today than in 1985.
Agencies were supposed to reduce their energy consumption by 15 percent from 1985 to 1995. President Clinton issued an executive order in 1994 calling on agencies to reduce energy use another 15 percent by 2005. Agencies won't be able to do that unless they make energy efficiency a priority, the alliance's new report said.
"Reducing the federal government's massive energy waste through improved energy productivity offers enormous opportunities to save taxpayers billions of dollars and improve the environment," the report said.
Federal agencies are already seeing benefits from energy efficiency. From 1985 to 1995, agencies squeezed out $3.8 billion in energy savings, reduced carbon emissions by 1.7 million metric tons and saved enough fuel annually to supply all of Vermont's energy.
But the alliance argued that federal procurement officers need to invest more in energy-saving products and services-for example, by passing the up-front costs of installing energy efficient products to contractors through performance contracts. Under such contracts, vendors are paid out of the money the government saves.
Energy-saving pacts are available to agencies through regional indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contracts run by the Energy Department and the Army Corps of Engineers. The two contracts allow agencies to enter into energy-saving arrangements in as little as six months, compared to more than a year if agencies had to bid the contracts independently.
But only 72 energy-saving performance contracts have been awarded nationwide, totaling $138 million.
"Most agencies have not trained people in doing energy-saving performance contracts," said Mark Hopkins, vice president of the alliance. "This is a new type of contracting vehicle. Anything that's new takes a long time for people to get comfortable with. Procurement officers have to figure out how regulations apply to them."
The alliance also questioned government claims that agencies reduced energy consumption by 14.2 percent from 1985 to 1995. The report noted that the government does not count energy lost in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity that is delivered to federal buildings in its figures. Agencies can also use a loophole to exempt buildings from reporting requirements. The White House is exempt because it is a residence, while the State Department's headquarters is exempt because it is host to international conferences.
Once all such facilities are factored in, government energy use from 1985 to 1995 increased 2.7 percent, the report said.
"Energy and cost reductions are used to argue that sufficient progress is being made in reducing the federal government's energy use. In fact, progress has not been nearly as great as purported," the report said. "It should also be pointed out, however, that if not for agencies' efforts to improve their building energy efficiency, energy use would have risen even more."
John Archibald, director of the Federal Energy Management Program at the Energy Department, said, "We've saved millions of dollars from better energy use, and we've done it through projects that were good for us from a business standpoint. We now have more support across the upper levels of agencies than we've had in the past couple decades. The White House has put a big emphasis on energy efficiency in the federal sector, and that has really been useful in focusing agencies on the benefits they get out of energy efficiency."
Archibald said agencies should try to get appropriations for energy efficiency investments, since up-front funding allows agencies to keep savings in later years. Under performance contracts, such savings are split with contractors. Agencies can also work with utilities to identify savings, Archibald said. He said agencies are still becoming familiar with energy-saving performance contracts, but predicted more of them in the coming years.
"The demand is out there," Archibald said.
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