Bill > S1191

This bill, the Better Buildings Act of 2013, amends the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to require the Department of Energy (DOE) to study the feasibility of significantly improving energy efficiency in commercial buildings by designing and constructing separate spaces, which are areas within a commercial building leased or occupied by a tenant, with high-performance energy efficiency measures, defined as technologies or practices that reduce energy consumption and operational costs. The DOE is also tasked with encouraging owners and tenants to implement these measures and will publish the study on its website. Additionally, the bill mandates the development of a voluntary "Tenant Star" program, integrated within the existing Energy Star program, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Secretary of Energy to recognize tenants in commercial buildings who voluntarily achieve high levels of energy efficiency in their separate spaces. The bill also requires the DOE's Administrator of the Energy Information Administration to collect data on building occupancy types that consume significant energy and other relevant factors for lowering energy consumption, making this data publicly available. Importantly, the bill explicitly states that the impact on climate change will not be a factor in determining the energy efficiency of commercial building tenants.