I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1867 

To encourage benchmarking and disclosure of energy information for 

commercial buildings. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 16, 2015 

Ms. CASTOR of Florida (for herself and Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 

Commerce 

A BILL 

To encourage benchmarking and disclosure of energy 

information for commercial buildings. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. ENERGY INFORMATION FOR COMMERCIAL 

4 BUILDINGS. 

5 (a) REQUIREMENT OF BENCHMARKING AND DISCLO6 SURE FOR LEASING BUILDINGS WITHOUT ENERGY STAR

7 LABELS.—Section 435(b)(2) of the Energy Independence 

8 and Security Act of 2007 (42 U.S.C. 17091(b)(2)) is 

9 amended— 

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1 (1) by striking ‘‘paragraph (2)’’ and inserting 

2 ‘‘paragraph (1)’’; and 

3 (2) by striking ‘‘signing the contract,’’ and all 

4 that follows through the period at the end and in5 serting the following: ‘‘signing the contract, the fol6 lowing requirements are met: 

7 ‘‘(A) The space is renovated for all energy 

8 efficiency and conservation improvements that 

9 would be cost effective over the life of the lease, 

10 including improvements in lighting, windows, 

11 and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning 

12 systems. 

13 ‘‘(B)(i) Subject to clause (ii), the space is 

14 benchmarked under a nationally recognized, on15 line, free benchmarking program, with public 

16 disclosure, unless the space is a space for which 

17 owners cannot access whole building utility con18 sumption data, including spaces— 

19 ‘‘(I) that are located in States with 

20 privacy laws that provide that utilities shall 

21 not provide such aggregated information to 

22 multitenant building owners; and 

23 ‘‘(II) for which tenants do not provide 

24 energy consumption information to the 

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1 commercial building owner in response to a 

2 request from the building owner. 

3 ‘‘(ii) A Federal agency that is a tenant of 

4 the space shall provide to the building owner, or 

5 authorize the owner to obtain from the utility, 

6 the energy consumption information of the 

7 space for the benchmarking and disclosure re8 quired by this subparagraph.’’. 

9 (b) STUDY.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after 

11 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 

12 Energy, in collaboration with the Administrator of 

13 the Environmental Protection Agency, shall complete 

14 a study— 

15 (A) on the impact of— 

16 (i) State and local performance 

17 benchmarking and disclosure policies, and 

18 any associated building efficiency policies, 

19 for commercial and multifamily buildings; 

20 and 

21 (ii) programs and systems in which 

22 utilities provide aggregated information re23 garding whole building energy consumption 

24 and usage information to owners of multimstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

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1 tenant commercial, residential, and mixed2 use buildings; 

3 (B) that identifies best practice policy ap4 proaches studied under subparagraph (A) that 

5 have resulted in the greatest improvements in 

6 building energy efficiency; and 

7 (C) that considers— 

8 (i) compliance rates and the benefits 

9 and costs of the policies and programs on 

10 building owners, utilities, tenants, and 

11 other parties; 

12 (ii) utility practices, programs, and 

13 systems that provide aggregated energy 

14 consumption information to multitenant 

15 building owners, and the impact of public 

16 utility commissions and State privacy laws 

17 on those practices, programs, and systems; 

18 (iii) exceptions to compliance in exist19 ing laws where building owners are not 

20 able to gather or access whole building en21 ergy information from tenants or utilities; 

22 (iv) the treatment of buildings with— 

23 (I) multiple uses; 

24 (II) uses for which baseline infor25 mation is not available; and 

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1 (III) uses that require high levels 

2 of energy intensities, such as data 

3 centers, trading floors, and televisions 

4 studios; 

5 (v) implementation practices, includ6 ing disclosure methods and phase-in of 

7 compliance; 

8 (vi) the safety and security of 

9 benchmarking tools offered by government 

10 agencies, and the resiliency of those tools 

11 against cyber attacks; and 

12 (vii) international experiences with re13 gard to building benchmarking and disclo14 sure laws and data aggregation for multi15 tenant buildings. 

16 (2) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—At the conclu17 sion of the study, the Secretary shall submit to the 

18 Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House 

19 of Representatives and Committee on Energy and 

20 Natural Resources of the Senate a report on the re21 sults of the study. 

22 (c) CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF DATABASE.— 

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 

24 after the date of enactment of this Act and following 

25 opportunity for public notice and comment, the Secmstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

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1 retary of Energy, in coordination with other relevant 

2 agencies, shall maintain, and if necessary create, a 

3 database for the purpose of storing and making 

4 available public energy-related information on com5 mercial and multifamily buildings, including— 

6 (A) data provided under Federal, State, 

7 local, and other laws or programs regarding 

8 building benchmarking and energy information 

9 disclosure; 

10 (B) information on buildings that have dis11 closed energy ratings and certifications; and 

12 (C) energy-related information on buildings 

13 provided voluntarily by the owners of the build14 ings, only in an anonymous form unless the 

15 owner provides otherwise. 

16 (2) COMPLEMENTARY PROGRAMS.—The data17 base maintained pursuant to paragraph (1) shall 

18 complement and not duplicate the functions of the 

19 Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star 

20 Portfolio Manager tool. 

21 (d) INPUT FROM STAKEHOLDERS.—The Secretary of 

22 Energy shall seek input from stakeholders to maximize the 

23 effectiveness of the actions taken under this section. 

24 (e) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 

25 of enactment of this Act, and every 2 years thereafter, 

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1 the Secretary of Energy shall submit to the Committee 

2 on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives 

3 and Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the 

4 Senate a report on the progress made in complying with 

5 this section. 

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