Aggressive DOE EE Agenda Announced: New EPA-DOE Working Agreement

Cathy Zoi, DOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, chose the CEE Industry Partners meeting as the venue for verbally announcing an aggressive agenda to invigorate great achievements in energy efficiency.

Zoi struck a friendly note with the crowd of almost 200 when she started her keynote address with the memory of working with David Goldstein, CEE director, on the original super efficient refrigerator project (SERP) that precipitated CEE. At the time, the refrigerator collaboration was groundbreaking, joining utilities, government, and manufacturers in an effort to bring an efficient product to market. Zoi also served as the first advisor from EPA to CEE Board.

Zoi described four changes at the highest levels of DOE that could support the mission of CEE:

• Speed and scale. DOE is committed to demonstrating that energy efficiency can make huge savings and that it can be done fast, rather than incrementally.
  
• High impact innovation. DOE has the largest research and development budget in the world. She will be asking what innovations are necessary and possible, and which ones are best suited to a government role.
• Hiring. With one hundred vacancies, Zoi described the opportunity to hire “as a Kennedyesque moment” to attract the most talented people in the country to the cause of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
• Capturing hearts and minds. To move energy efficiency out of the realm of the engineer and the rational economist, her department is asking what people need to know about clean energy and about green jobs. These stories will be collected into an easy-to-understand framework for marketing energy efficiency.

Zoi described her dream of creating a new norm of efficiency in the minds of citizens, in which every homeowner and business in the country has access to periodic energy upgrades. Just as the public expects to tune their cars periodically, they’ll expect to upgrade their homes and businesses. One of DOE’s top priorities—and an early step in fulfilling this dream—is development of a new National Building Rating Program that incorporates existing tools from both EPA and DOE and is free, transparent, comprehensive, and technically sound. Zoi added that federal grants, leveraged funding, and innovative partnerships with groups such as CEE and its members will also be necessary to make sure that current obstacles are overcome.

The National Building Rating Program plans to streamline energy audits with five key elements:

• Model. An enhanced rating model that istransparent, free, and technically sound.
• Measures. Established industry standards for all energy efficiency measures in homes and commercial buildings to be incorporated, including comments and suggestions from CEE members.
• Metrics. Systems for data collection before and after energy improvements to be established for use by stakeholders
• Training. For the building program to succeed, there is a need for credible building inspectors and contractors with a high level of skill and training.
• Labels. New means for conveying information to the market derived from the rating program and that is complementary to ENERGY STAR.^®

“We’re really excited,” Zoi commented to CEE. “With EPA, we share [CEE Board member] Gene Rodrigues’ view on the potential for energy efficiency. We share the same impatience for the current approach to implementing energy efficiency. We can’t afford any more incrementalism. Every week, there’s a new piece of science about the warming of the planet, and we’ve got to harness this wedge of potential to save the planet. We have the technology to figure it out, but we don’t have the time. We need your help in thinking big and moving with us.”

Zoi went on to describe the new joint agreement between EPA and DOE regarding ENERGY STAR. It includes a new governing council that she will co-chair with her counterpart at EPA, Gina McCarthy, who serves as assistant administrator for Air and Radiation at EPA. This council will ensure coordination between the two agencies, attempt to eliminate duplicative efforts, and manage communications to outside stakeholders. They will also host twice annual stakeholder meetings.

While CEE members responded with questions about the particulars of the new offerings and cooperative working relationship, they also welcomed the opportunity to work more closely with the government agencies through their respective committee efforts. Ed Wisniewski, CEE deputy director, expressed our collective appreciation for Cathy’s keynote and her message that clarity about both market and technology will make it easier for CEE members to achieve their savings targets and advance energy efficiency.