§17063 Energy Information for Commercial Buildings

Summary

Requires the Secretary of Energy, working with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to finish a study not later than 2 years after April 30, 2015. The study must look at how state and local rules that benchmark and disclose energy use affect commercial and multifamily buildings and how utilities share whole‑building energy data with owners of multitenant buildings. It must find which policy approaches work best to improve building energy efficiency and consider things like compliance rates, costs and benefits for owners, utilities, and tenants, utility practices and privacy rules, cases where owners cannot get whole‑building data, buildings with mixed or unusual uses (including high‑energy places like data centers, trading floors, and television studios), how disclosure is implemented and phased in, cyber security of government benchmarking tools, and international experience. When the study is done, the Secretary must send the results to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate. Not later than 18 months after April 30, 2015, and after public notice and comment, the Secretary must keep or create a public database of energy information for commercial and multifamily buildings. The database must include data from federal, state, and local benchmarking or disclosure programs, listings of buildings with energy ratings or certifications, and voluntary owner‑provided energy information (kept anonymous unless the owner agrees otherwise). The database must complement, not duplicate, the EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The Secretary must get input from stakeholders and must report on progress to the same two congressional committees not later than 2 years after April 30, 2015 and every 2 years thereafter.