§17063 Energy Information for Commercial Buildings

Summary

Requires the Secretary of Energy, working with the EPA, to finish a study by April 30, 2017 about how state and local rules that measure and disclose building energy use affect commercial and multifamily buildings, and about programs where utilities give whole-building energy data to owners of multitenant buildings. The study must find the best policy approaches that most improved energy efficiency and look at compliance rates, costs and benefits to owners, utilities, tenants, and others; utility data practices and privacy rules; cases where owners cannot get whole-building data; how to handle mixed‑use buildings, uses without baseline data, and very high‑energy uses (like data centers, trading floors, and TV studios); how to roll out and disclose information; security and cyber resilience of government benchmarking tools; and international examples. When the study is done, the Secretary must send a report to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Within 18 months after April 30, 2015 (by October 30, 2016), after public notice and comment, the Secretary must create and keep a public database of energy information on commercial and multifamily buildings. The database must include data reported under laws or programs, buildings that have energy ratings or certifications, and voluntary owner information that is anonymous unless the owner agrees otherwise. The database must support, not duplicate, EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The Secretary must get input from stakeholders and must send a progress report to the same two Congressional committees by April 30, 2017 and every two years after.