U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) today helped reintroduce bipartisan legislation -- the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act - aimed at boosting greater energy efficiency across the public and private sectors. The bill, authored by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), includes a bipartisan provision authored by Senator Ayotte and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) that encourages tenants of commercial buildings to implement cost-effective measures to help reduce energy consumption and utility costs for businesses. Ayotte is an original cosponsor of the Portman-Shaheen bill.
"This is commonsense legislation aimed at increasing energy efficiency across the public and private sectors that has strong bipartisan support," said Ayotte." Commercial tenants have an essential role to play in managing energy efficient buildings, and I'm pleased that this bill includes a provision I coauthored to incentivize commercial tenants to voluntarily implement cost-effective measures to responsibly reduce energy consumption."
The legislation incorporates language from an Ayotte stand-alone bill - the "Better Buildings Act" - that seeks to increase energy efficiency in commercial buildings by encouraging tenants to voluntarily implement cost-effective measures to reduce energy consumption and utility costs. The legislation would create a new voluntary "Tenant Star" certification to recognize tenants who operate energy efficient leased spaces. It's estimated that tenants use 50 percent or more of the energy in all office buildings.