Letter to the Honorable Donald J. Trump, President of the United States - Support of ESPCs and UESCs to Modernize Infrastructure and Improve Energy and Water Services

Letter

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing today to express our strong support for the continued utilization of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) and Utility Energy Service Contracts (UESCs) within the federal government. These public-private partnerships provide a framework that allows the federal government to modernize federal infrastructure and improve energy and water services through innovative financing.

ESPCs have accounted for at least $12 billion of privately-financed improvements to federal buildings over the past 20 years. Once an ESPC is identified by the federal government and an ESPC agreement is formed, the project is financed and executed by private entities and paid for through the future energy savings. UESCs are also an excellent approach to meeting energy and water efficiency needs within the federal government. ESPCs and UESCs reduce the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on energy and water, allowing the federal government to upgrade facilities and meet its resource needs without impact on the federal Treasury.

While ESPCs and UESCs are authorized by law, their use is almost entirely driven by executive branch and agency leadership and commitments which we think deserve your continued support. For the last two administrations, there have been high level efforts to build on these commitments. President Bush undertook tracking mechanisms and raised encouragement to a secretarial activity at the Department of Energy, led by Energy Secretary Bodman. President Obama committed to $4 billion in private sector investment through ESPCs and UESCs over five years, which was widely encouraged on Capitol Hill from a bipartisan group of 179 Members.

In summary, we urge you to continue to support this type of public-private contracting. ESPCs and UESCs have the co-benefits of achieving energy cost savings, increasing government facility resiliency and security, and eliminating the need for federal dollars for infrastructure improvements. We believe that your administration is well positioned to use public-private performance contracting to the strongest extent possible to eliminate unnecessary spending in our federal facilities. We hope you will work with us to ensure the success of these valuable energy savings financing tools.

Sincerely,