‘Rebuilding America’ Salutes President Obama’s Boost to Energy Efficiency Programs

President To Announce Credits And Incentives For Job Growth And Commercial Building Energy Savings

Washington, D.C.

February 3, 2011

Contact:

Megan Rabbitt

Today at Pennsylvania State University President Obama will unveil ambitious energy-efficiency proposals from his forthcoming budget to spur innovation, jump-start job growth, and deliver $40 billion in energy and consumer savings.  Collectively, the steps are designed to make commercial buildings 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020.

Reid Detchon, Executive Director of the Energy Future Coalition, praised the President’s initiatives.  “These steps are precisely targeted to unlock the tremendous energy savings available in commercial buildings throughout the country – from office buildings to fast-food restaurants,” he said.  “Our Rebuilding America initiative has brought together building owners, contractors, and trade unions around just this kind of ambitious agenda.”

“The President called this our generation’s Sputnik moment, and rebuilding America’s offices and commercial buildings goes to the very heart of our economic competitiveness,” said Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a founding partner of the Rebuilding America coalition.  “The building materials and advanced technology that go into energy efficiency retrofits have over 90% U.S. domestic content, and the firms that will create these jobs are mostly small businesses.  The President’s Better Building Initiative will grow the market for cutting edge clean-energy technologies made here in America.”

“We applaud President Obama’s new energy policy to improve energy efficiency in commercial, multi-family and institutional buildings,” said Building Owners and Managers Association International Chair Ray H. Mackey, Jr., RPA, CPM, CCIM, partner and chief operating officer, Stream Realty Partners, L.P. “The initiative includes the critical business incentives, such as the commercial building tax credit and loan guarantees, that are key to meeting the energy efficiency goals of the plan.  BOMA International has been a leader in energy efficiency for years, launching the 7-Point Challenge in 2007 which asked members to reduce energy consumption by 30% by 2012.”

“The need to put this country back to work and the need to retrofit our country’s industrial, commercial, institutional and residential buildings are two problems that, when combined, present an obvious solution,” said Michael Sullivan, General President of the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association.  “We support the President’s initiatives in this regard.”

The official White House fact sheet on the Better Buildings Initiative is here.

For more information about the Rebuilding America Coalition, or to arrange an interview with any of its members, contact John Anthony at 202.778.1639 or via email at janthony@energyfuturecoalition.org.

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BACKGROUND

Launched in 2009, Rebuilding America is a joint initiative of the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Energy Future Coalition.  It has been endorsed by more than 50 organizations in the fields of finance, manufacturing, labor and energy advocacy.

Rebuilding America calls on our nation’s leaders to adopt and implement a comprehensive national strategy to transform the market and stand up a retrofit industry that can renovate 50 million residential and commercial buildings by 2020 – 40% of the nation’s building stock.  Retrofitting that many homes and small businesses will require a total of $500 billion in public and private investment and support approximately 625,000 sustained full-time jobs directly and indirectly each year throughout the decade, while saving consumers $32 billion to $64 billion on their energy bills each year for an estimated energy savings of $685 billion through 2020.

The Energy Future Coalition is a broad-based, non-partisan alliance that seeks to bridge the differences among business, labor, and environmental groups and identify energy policy options with broad political support.  The coalition aims to bring about changes in U.S. energy policy to address the economic, security and environmental challenges related to the production and use of fossil fuels with a compelling new vision of the economic opportunities that will be created by the transition to a new energy economy.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund is the sister advocacy organization of the Center for American Progress. The Action Fund transforms progressive ideas into policy through rapid response communications, legislative action, grassroots organizing and advocacy, and partnerships with other progressive leaders throughout the country and the world.  The Action Fund is also the home of the Progress Report.