The Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction expired at the end of 2016. On February 9, President Trump signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 into law, which contained a number of provisions including extending the CBTD to the end of 2017. This means lighting upgrade projects completed in 2017 may qualification for the deduction.

On January 1, 2018, new Title 20 regulations went into effect requiring general-service lamps achieve an efficacy of 45 lumens/W. While certain specialty incandescent lamps will continue to be available for sale in the state, consumers will be limited to a choice of LED or CFL for general-service sockets once current inventories of incandescent and halogen lamps are sold.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has issued a final rule related to energy standards for rough-service and vibration-service incandescent lamps. This rule codifies backstop provisions in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, establishing a maximum rated wattage of 40W and packaging limitation of one lamp per package when sold at the retail level. The effective date for the rule was January 25, 2018.

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued new energy standards for general-service fluorescent lamps. These standards identify categories of lamps and impose minimum efficacies, expressed in lumens/W. Primarily impacting 4-ft. 32W T8 lamps and some reduced-wattage T8 lamps, the new standards are now set to take effect January 26, 2018.

The AIA has announced it will lobby against inequities in the House and Senate versions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which eliminates the Historic Tax Credit and excludes architects and other small business service professions from lower tax rates. AIA’s president said if this legislation passes, Congress will be making a “terrible mistake.”

Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in Congress that would make permanent a key energy efficiency tax incentive for owners and designers of energy efficient buildings while expanding its benefits to designers of hospitals, schools, tribal community facilities and other non-profits. H.R. 3507, introduced by Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) and co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY), [...]

As many as 77,000 new design and construction jobs would be created annually over 10 years–along with almost $7.4 billion more in annual GDP–if Congress and the Administration continue an important energy efficiency tax policy, according to an economic impact study by Regional Economic Models Inc. (REMI). Section 179D of the tax code, also known [...]

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) issued the following statement after the Administration submitted to Congress its final Fiscal Year 2018 federal budget on May 23. AIA President Thomas Vonier, FAIA, said: “Unfortunately, this budget includes many of the same cuts we criticized in the March draft of the Administration’s budget — in fact, it [...]

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reaffirmed its commitment to climate change mitigation and announced it was opposing the administration’s decision to withdraw the United States as a signatory to the Paris Agreement. That accord, signed in late 2015 within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), commits the international community to fighting [...]