Legislation + Regulation

The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has issued waivers for several lighting products from the Buy American requirements that apply to manufactured goods to be used in projects funded by EERE under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “Recovery Act”). The EERE document includes a waiver [...]

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Audi’s Super Bowl commercial on the “green police” shows cops storming homes because they find batteries in the garbage and arresting homeowners because they have incandescent light bulbs installed. It’s humorous, but unfortunately, a lot of people think this kind of thing is real. It’s also strange that people who don’t mind trading ancient liberties [...]

Below is my column for the Jan/Feb issue of Illuminate, for your consideration. Note that Jan/Feb is my last issue as editor at large. From here on out, I will not be leading the magazine as its editor but instead contributing it to as a staff writer. This was on my request … Death and [...]

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have called on Congress to support expanding the Energy Efficient Commercial Building Tax Deduction from $1.80 per square foot to $3.00 per square foot. A letter to Congressional members was co-signed by more than 50 organizations in the construction and environmental arenas. [...]

Liberty Building Forensics Group has published a post on its blog here about potential downsides to coming green building codes such as ASHRAE 189.1, Standard for the Design of High Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. Titled, “What Happens When Green Becomes Code: Do Buildings Get Better or Do Lawyers Get Richer?”, warms of [...]

The Wall Street Journal paints the International Dark Sky Association as Big Brother in Eric Felten’s opinion piece here. Once again, lighting takes a backseat to politics, but perhaps not in the way Felten thinks. In the lighting industry, we often hope for lighting issues to enter the public consciousness. But once they do, they [...]

Highlights of Int. No. 973: * Lighting systems in buildings larger than 50,000 gross sq.ft. (or buildings that combined with other buildings on same tax lot in total exceed 100,000 sq.ft.) must be upgraded * Deadline for upgrade is 1/1/2025 * Upgrade defined as meeting minimum requirements of New York City Energy Conservation Code * [...]

New York City has passed significant new legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing government, commercial and residential buildings in New York City. The six-point Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, introduced on Earth Day and enacted as part of PlaNYC, includes four bills that will dramatically reduce the City’s energy usage, saving consumers $700 million [...]