New York's senior senator and featured speaker at NYLCV's Spring Gala, Charles Schumer announced with Mayor Bloomberg yesterday that he wants the federal government to follow the lead of NYC and California in creating tough energy standards for buildings.

His proposal, which he claims will increase building efficiency by 30%, could seriously impact the amount of energy the US consumes and greenhouse gases it emits.

"My amendment will take the rest of the country in the same direction that cities like New York and states like California are heading. The best way to reduce greenhouse gases is conservation even though alternative fuels get most of the attention. As one environmentalist said, alternative fuels are the sizzle but conservation is the steak,” Schumer said.

According to his website, Schumer's plan will:

• Set a target for both national model residential and commercial building energy codes of 30% energy efficiency improvement by 2012 and 50% improvement by 2022, with interim and subsequent targets, as well, from proposed model codes created by the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), with input from the Department of Energy (DOE).
• Require states to adopt codes within 2 years that save at least as much energy as the national models, similar to commercial code requirement today.
• Require states within an additional 3 years to achieve 90% compliance with the codes verified by inspections of a sample of buildings.
• Provide DOE assistance to the states and to the national organizations to implement the codes, and retain a 2005 EPA act provision for grants to states for implementing plans to achieve high rates of compliance with the codes.
  

According to the Alliance to Save Energy, 40% of US energy use goes towards buildings.  In NYC, buildings consume nearly 80% of all energy.

To read more about Schumer's proposal, click HERE.