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Torchlight
It’s Not A Wrap
By: Nancy E. Anderson, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Sallan FoundationIssue: Torchlight #27Date: November, 2009
 
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© 2009 The Sallan Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.http://www.sallan.org
 
 
Torchlight #27
It’s Not A Wrap
Readers are rarely surprised to find look-back and look-ahead musings in December’s media. Myfinal Torchlight of the year honors this tradition, although the issues most closely tracked during2009 may lack closure or even legible milestones.For those who have read the fine print and followed the progression of four New York City billsaimed at improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings and the means to measure both baseline performance and improvements, as of this writing there is no denouement. After months of  private meetings, public hearings, second looks and more meetings, the latest draft of the four billsis circulating. However, the City Council has yet to vote. The Mayor’s staff says that timing is anissue and wants to see a vote by the end of December. Although calendar years are just conventionsin the flow of time, on January 1, 2010 a City Council will be seated with many new faces and, asconventional wisdom would have it, Mayoral control of the public agenda could be up for grabsstarting the first day of Michael Bloomberg’s final term as Mayor.The legislation contains some significant changes from the bills publicly vetted at June’sEnvironmental Protection Committee hearings. Gone is the requirement for building owners toundertake those energy efficiency retrofits that have a five-year return on investment. In its place,owners would have to hire licensed professionals to undertake “retro-commissioning” for identifying how to get building systems functioning up to their designed capacities. Only municipal buildings will have to undertake energy-related alterations and even those will be restricted to work whose cost can be recouped in seven years. For all other covered properties, instead of the capitalcosts associated with retrofits, the redrafted legislation requires owners to incur costs to remedymaterials or equipment deficiencies that can be paid from a building’s operating budget. TheMayor’s office asserts that such actions will achieve 85% of the energy savings of the original bill’simpact. Some critics claim that retro-commissioning will be meaningless without a reliable to-dolist, but that could fall to next year’s rule-making tasks.Meanwhile, during what’s left of 2009, the question remains: can removing retrofit language quashthe opposition of commercial and residential property owners to the bills? This will be answered byhow the City Council votes, if it votes, on the four bills. Many real estate owners face high vacancy
 
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© 2009 The Sallan Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.http://www.sallan.org
 
 
Torchlight #27
It’s Not A Wrap
rates, narrowed private financing options, and the disruption of the NYSERDA multi-family program, which had offered expertise and financial assistance for energy efficiency improvements.All this makes the promise of energy savings over time, hedging volatile energy prices or combatingclimate change worth less than the near-term calculation of self-interest.For readers focused on cutting the size of the City’s carbon footprint, the greatest energy efficiencygains could come from the bill stipulating that most renovation work performed in New York Citymust meet the relatively stringent standards of the municipal energy efficiency code. This code willno longer just apply to new construction or very large alterations. If this bill is passed, almost alladditions, alterations, renovations and repair on existing buildings or building systems will have toconform to the energy code. In plain English, this is a big deal.The energy benchmarking bill is the next on the greener greater legislative list. It calls on propertyowners to use existing USEPA Portfolio Manager software to gather and organize data on energyand water consumption. The legislation acknowledges the limits of the current software to handle buildings that house data centers (with their ravenous appetite for electricity) and the peculiarities of the City’s great vertical density and steam systems. Certain reporting specifics will be waived for such conditions. The bill also limits the responsibility of landlords for getting consumption datafrom tenants. The Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability will be responsible for  preparing and electronically posting reports on benchmarking findings. Unfortunately, buildingswon’t have to post their results on site or compare their performance and operating costs to similar  buildings. New York could learn a thing or two from the EU’s post-a-notice-in-the-lobby approachand be more innovative in harnessing the competitive power of the marketplace when it comes toenergy usage and costs. How about offering zero interest loans (secured with federal stimulusmoney) from a revolving fund for the first one hundred benchmarkers?For those readers deep in the wording weeds and with an interest in enforcement, all four bills stillhave a certain “Hail Mary pass” quality. While the Buildings Department expects that between thelearning curve of licensed architects and engineers and the learning curve for the City’s own building plan examiners, many of the code’s new energy and disclosure provisions will become part
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