FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Julian Boggs, Policy Director, Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance
jboggs@keealliance.org
215.910.4790
Philadelphia, PA: On Thursday, November 21st, the Building Energy Performance Policy (bill number 190600), passed out of Philadelphia City Council with a vote of 15 – 0. The legislation, introduced in June of 2019 by Councilmember Blondell Reynolds Brown, requires most owners of non-residential buildings over 50,000 square feet to perform a building “tune-up” on existing energy systems and controls.
Meeting the law’s minimum requirements is an important first step in energy management, and owners’ tune-up costs will be recouped through the energy savings they generate. Compliance with this law may lead to greater investment in energy efficiency and conservation measures.
“Investments in energy efficiency are a win-win-win – they reduce pollution, save money on energy bills, and create jobs,” said Julian Boggs, Policy Director for the Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance, or KEEA.
A surge in tune-ups and other energy efficiency measures will further boost the region’s growing energy efficiency industry, which accounts for more than 22,000 jobs in the Philadelphia metro area*. Energy service providers, many of them KEEA members, stand ready to help building owners meet the minimum requirement and further investments down the road.
Energy efficiency advocates like KEEA are encouraging building owners to seize this opportunity to exceed program requirements. For those building owners ready to invest more deeply and realize even greater energy savings, a broad array of incentives and programs are available; these include utility retro-commissioning programs under Phase IV of Act 129 and Philadelphia’s newly-launched Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program, or C-PACE, an innovative clean energy finance tool from the Philadelphia Energy Authority.
*E4TheFuture, Pennsylvania Jobs Report
KEEA is Pennsylvania’s trade association for the energy efficiency industry. Our membership, comprised of more than sixty companies, ranges from small local firms to large multinational corporations and operates across the value chain of energy efficiency. We engage our membership and key policymakers in support of an industry that accounts for more than 68,000 Pennsylvania jobs. The policy we promote at state and local levels expands the market for energy efficiency.