§7628 Demonstration grant program for local governments

Summary

Creates a demo grant program to give competitive grants to local governments (like cities and counties) to upgrade their government buildings with cost-saving technologies and practices and to reach verified operational cost savings. The federal share is 40 percent of project costs, but the Administrator may waive the local share up to 100 percent for communities found to be economically distressed under published rules. Grants may not exceed $1,000,000. The Administrator had to issue program rules within 1 year after December 19, 2007; those rules must set standards for measuring and verifying savings, for training and technical help on building retrofits, and must require each grantee to cut facility-wide operating costs by at least 40 percent versus a baseline calculated as a 3-year, weather‑normalized average. The law does not override any state or local rule that is stricter. It authorizes $20,000,000 for each fiscal year 2007 through 2012, requires annual reports to Congress and a final report, and ends the program on September 30, 2012. Defined terms: “cost-effective technologies and practices” and “operational cost savings” are defined in section 17061 of this title.