NewEnergyNews: TODAY’S STUDY: The Most Energy Efficient Cities Right Now/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

    --------------------------

    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

    --------------------------

    --------------------------

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

    -------------------

    -------------------

      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

    -------------------

    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

  • ---------------
  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Tuesday, May 23, 2017

    TODAY’S STUDY: The Most Energy Efficient Cities Right Now

    The 2017 City Energy Efficiency Scorecard

    David Ribeiro, Tyler Bailey, Ariel Drehobl, Jen King, Stefen Samarripas, Mary Shoemaker, Shruti Vaidyanathan, Weston Berg, and Fernando Castro-Alvarez, May 2017

    (American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy)

    Executive Summary

    Energy efficiency is one of the least expensive, most abundant, and most underused resources for local economic and community development. Saving energy can make communities more resilient while also protecting human health and the environment. Energy efficiency investments also save money for households and businesses, catalyze local reinvestment, and create local jobs.

    Local governments around the United States can influence energy use in their communities in many ways: through land use and zoning laws, building codes, public finance, transportation investment, economic and workforce development, and in many cases the provision of water and energy. Local and metropolitan energy efficiency initiatives give visible benefits to residents, directly improving the communities where they live and work.

    The 2017 City Energy Efficiency Scorecard compiles information on local policies and actions to advance energy efficiency, comparing cities across five policy areas. This third edition of the City Scorecard ranks 51 large cities, the same as in our previous edition. 1 To reflect the current and near-future policy environment, the City Scorecard considers implemented policies and those that have been adopted but are just beginning to be implemented. The resulting scores identify cities that are excelling and those that have room for improvement. We provide examples throughout the report of best practices used by leading cities. As a result, the Scorecard serves as a road map for local governments aiming to improve their cities’ energy efficiency.

    Key Findings

    The 2017 City Energy Efficiency Scorecard compares cities across five policy areas:

    • Local government operations

    • Community-wide initiatives

    • Buildings policies

    • Energy and water utilities

    • Transportation policies

    Boston earned the top spot for the third City Scorecard in a row. It received 84.5 out of a possible 100 points, an improvement of 2.5 from its 2015 score. As in the 2015 edition, Boston scored well in all policy areas and excelled in buildings policies and energy and water utilities. The city continues to implement its building energy benchmarking requirements, enforce the Massachusetts Stretch Energy Code, and partner with its energy utilities through Renew Boston. The utilities serving the city have made substantial investments in electricity and natural gas efficiency programs and offer comprehensive lowincome and multifamily programs.

    Joining Boston at the top of the rankings are New York and Seattle, followed by Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon in a fourth-place tie. All have wide-ranging efficiency policies and programs. Los Angeles entered the top five (and the top ten) for the first time. Los Angeles’s 25-point improvement in this edition paired with its 20-point improvement in the 2015 City Scorecard fueled its rise into the top five.

    Rounding out the top tier are Austin, Chicago, and Washington, DC, followed by Denver and San Francisco in a ninth-place tie. These cities, each of them a repeat top-ten performer, continue to demonstrate their commitment to efficiency.

    Los Angeles, San Diego, Kansas City, and Phoenix are the most-improved cities compared with the last edition, with all showing double-digit scoring improvements. All these cities have made real strides in efficiency. For example, Los Angeles’s Existing Building Energy and Water Efficiency (EBEWE) program consists of energy audit, retrofit, and benchmarking requirements for commercial and residential buildings, as well as water efficiency measures. San Diego is another good example. The city’s Climate Action Plan established goals to reduce energy use by 15% per housing unit in 20% of all such units and to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15% by 2020.

    Thirty-two cities improved their scores, many with significant point increases. In addition to the four most-improved municipalities, seven others improved their scores by at least 10 points. These cities are Austin, Philadelphia, Denver, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Raleigh, and Portland. Several of the 11 cities with double-digit improvement are currently ranked between 11th and 20th overall. If they maintain their momentum, they may reshuffle the top-ten rankings in future City Scorecards.

    Cities have taken positive steps since the 2015 edition, especially for buildings policies. Eight cities have adopted benchmarking and transparency policies since the last edition, and several have either updated their building energy codes or advocated for the state to do so. More cities have also established community-wide goals to save energy and/or reduce their GHG emissions, and a growing number are on track to achieve these goals. Thirty-five cities in the 2017 edition have either energy or climate goals, whereas only 30 had such goals in 2015.

    Leaders in efficiency in local government operations are Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, and Washington, DC. All have set policies to increase efficiency in city government, procurement, and asset management.

    The top-scoring cities in community-wide initiatives are Austin, Minneapolis, Portland, and Washington, DC. They have efficiency-related goals for the whole community and strategies to mitigate urban heat islands. They also have policies or programs to plan for future efficient distributed energy systems.

    Leading cities in buildings policies include Boston, Austin, Los Angeles, and New York. These cities have adopted or advocated for stringent building energy codes, devoted resources to building code compliance, established requirements and incentives for efficient buildings, and increased the availability of information on energy use in buildings.

    The leading cities in the energy utilities area are Boston and Providence. The energy efficiency programs of the utilities serving these cities offer high levels of savings and reach underserved markets, including low-income and multifamily households. Austin, Boston, Columbus, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and San Diego are the leading cities in tackling efficiency in their water systems and water uses. Ratepayers in these cities have access to efficiency programs designed to save water and energy simultaneously.

    Finally, cities with the top transportation policies scores include Portland and New York. Their initiatives include location efficiency strategies, shifts to efficient modes of transportation, transit investments, efficient vehicles and vehicle infrastructure, and energyefficient freight transport.

    All cities, even the highest scorers, have significant room for improvement. Boston was the only city to earn at least 80 points. Only 18 cities earned over half of the possible 100 points. All 51 cities can improve their efficiency initiatives to increase their scores.

    While cities can improve across all policy areas, cities have the most room for growth in transportation policies. In most policy areas, at least one or two cities earned more than 90% of the available points. In transportation policies, however, only two cities earned more than 70% of the available points…

    Strategies For Improving Efficiency

    As noted above, every city we analyzed has considerable room for improvement. We offer the following recommendations for cities that want to improve their energy efficiency and their ranking in the City Scorecard.

    Adopt energy savings targets. Develop and codify energy efficiency goals for public and private-sector energy savings. Goals to reduce energy use, both community-wide and in government operations, can lay the foundation for further policy activity (Chapters 2 and 3).

    Lead by example by improving efficiency in local government operations and facilities. Integrate energy efficiency into the day-to-day activities of local government. Adopt policies and programs to save energy in public-sector buildings and fleets and in standard practices such as procurement (Chapter 2).

    Actively manage, track, and communicate energy performance, and enable broader access to energy use information. Tracking and reporting progress toward goals will reveal opportunities for improving energy plans, such as revising time lines, targets, or program strategies. Work with utilities to improve local government access to energy use data to better manage progress toward goals. Help increase energy data available to residents and businesses to encourage them to take their own efficiency actions (Chapters 2, 3, and 5).

    Adopt policies to improve efficiency in new and existing buildings. To improve the efficiency of new buildings, ensure that building energy code enforcement and compliance activities are effective and well funded. If the city has authority under state law, adopt more stringent building energy codes; if not, advocate for the state to do so. To improve energy efficiency in existing buildings, provide incentives for efficient buildings, require energy audits, and implement energy performance requirements for certain building types. Encourage better integration of energy information into local real estate markets by requiring energy benchmarking, rating, and transparency (Chapter 4).

    Partner with energy and water utilities to expand access to energy efficiency programs. Because utilities are the primary funders and administrators of efficiency programs in most places, partner with them to develop and administer an energy-saving strategy, plan, or agreement. As part of this, work with utilities to design energy efficiency programs to reach historically underserved markets such as low-income and multifamily households (Chapter 5).

    Decrease transportation energy use through location-efficient development and improved access to additional travel modes. Use location-efficient zoning and integrate transportation and land use planning so residents can access major destinations via energy-efficient transportation. Expand transportation choices for residents, including those in low-income or affordable housing. Use complete streets policies and car- and bicycle-sharing programs to encourage a switch from driving to other modes of transportation.2 Create neighborhoods that support safe, automobile-independent activities (Chapter 6).

    IFTTT Recipe: Share new blog posts to Facebook connects blogger to facebook

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    << Home