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10/07/2009 11:17 AM
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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: October 7, 2009
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Obama Orders Federal Agencies to Trim Greenhouse Gases
20 Solar Homes Take Shape for Solar Decathlon
DOE, Chinese Ministry Co-Host First EV Forum
Obama Administration Invests $300M in Green Federal Fleet
EPA Limits GHG Regulations to Large Facilities
EIA Forecasts Lower Heating Bills this Winter
President Obama Orders Federal Agencies to Trim Greenhouse Gases
President Obama signed an executive order on October 5 that sets sustainability goals for federal agencies and focuses on improvements in their environmental, energy, and economic performance.
The Executive Order requires federal agencies to set a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target for 2020 within 90 days. It also requires federal agencies to increase energy efficiency, reduce the petroleum consumption of their fleets, conserve water, reduce waste, support sustainable communities, and leverage their federal purchasing power to promote environmentally-responsible products and technologies. The new Executive Order makes reducing GHG emissions a priority for the federal government, which occupies nearly 500,000 buildings, operates more than 600,000 vehicles, employs more than 1.8 million civilians, and purchases more than $500 billion per year in goods and services.
In his order, President Obama requires agencies to meet a number of energy, water, and waste reduction targets, including reducing vehicle fleet petroleum use 30% by 2020; beginning in 2020, designing all new federal buildings to achieve net-zero energy use by 2030; increasing water efficiency 26% by 2020; minimizing buildings' impacts on storm water runoff; recycling or diverting 50% of waste by 2015; and meeting sustainability requirements in 95% of all applicable contracts.
Within 180 days of the order, the federal government will develop guidance for locating federal buildings in a manner consistent with sustainable development.
Recent examples of federal environmental stewardship include the planned construction of a 600 kW wind turbine at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and the planned installation of an 8 MW solar PV system at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado. See the White House press release and the Executive Order (PDF 87 KB).
The Executive Order follows the president's proclamation that October is National Energy Awareness Month. Obama is calling on U.S. citizens to mark the month by making clean energy choices that can rebuild our economy and make it more sustainable. Noting that the federal government is the largest consumer of energy in the US, his proclamation noted that the Obama Administration is committed to lead by example in the use of clean energy and energy efficiency. The proclamation also notes that we face a turning point in our nation's energy policy, and that we can either allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc, or we can create jobs deploying low-carbon technologies to prevent its worst effects. See the proclamation.
20 Solar Homes Take Shape on the National Mall for the Solar Decathlon
The assembly of 20 solar homes on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is rapidly approaching completion, as the 2009 Solar Decathlon prepares to open, free to the public, on October 9th.
The Solar Decathlon is an international event in which DOE challenges university teams to design and build homes that run entirely on solar energy. The teams ship their partially constructed homes to the National Mall, assemble them, and then compete in 10 contests.
This year, the 20 teams came from universities in Arizona, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, and Spain. Trucks rolled onto the National Mall just after midnight on the morning of October 1, and since then, the teams have been steadily working to assemble their solar homes. See the DOE press release and the Solar Decathon Web site.
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