Biden Administration Announce Federal Buildings Performance Standard

The Biden administration on Dec. 7 announced the first federal building performance standard and set a goal to reduce energy usage and electrify equipment and appliances in 30 percent of the buildings owned by the federal government by 2030. In addition, the U.S. Energy Department announced a proposed rulemaking to electrify new federal buildings as well as those undergoing significant refurbishments.

These new activities are expected to save significant sums of taxpayers money, by both lowering energy consumption and reducing vast amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, these actions will increase resilience, boost U.S. energy independence and increase the number of jobs across the nation, while at the same time supporting President Biden’s goal of achieving net zero emissions in all federal buildings by 2045.

Furthermore, California announced its participation in the National Building Performance Standard Coalition, a group of more than 30 state and local governments that have committed to lowering the emissions footprint of current buildings. The electrification of current buildings is paramount to accomplishing the administration’s climate goals, since buildings account for 35 percent of carbon emissions.

Federal agencies over the last year have taken a number of actions, in response to the President’s early executive orders and climate goals. Some actions include the General Service Administration declaring that it will not use funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to install fossil fuel based equipment and the U.S. Energy Department announcing a $38 million Net Zero Labs Pilot initiative to decarbonize four national laboratories to address difficult to decarbonize industries. In the commercial building sector, over 40 companies have joined the department’s Better Climate Challenge committing to cut portfolio-wide emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030.