President Obama Directs Agencies to “Lead by Example,” Setting New Renewable Energy Goals for Federal Facilities
On December 10, 2013, President Obama issued a memo entitled, “Federal Leadership on Energy Management,” that directs federal facilities to achieve new goals for renewable energy and implement new energy management practices. The principal goals are as follows: (1) by 2020, 20% of the total electric energy consumed by each agency during any fiscal year should come from renewable energy, with interim goals of 10% renewable energy usage by 2015, 15% in 2016 and 2017, and 17.5% in 2018 and 2019; (2) each agency must install building energy meters and sub-meters as required by the National Energy Conservation Policy Act and install additional ones where cost-effective and appropriate; and (3) the General Services Administration, in coordination with the Department of Energy, must initiate a strategy to pilot “Green Button” at federal facilities where feasible. “Green Button” is a data access system developed by the North American Energy Standards Board for providing web-based secure access to energy bill account data, usage data, and consumption data to customers and utilities for purposes of demand-side management. For purposes of the President’s memo, “renewable energy” is defined as “energy produced by solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, ocean, geothermal, municipal solid waste, or new hydroelectric generation capacity.”