Dear Councilmembers:
Thank you for your climate and environmental leadership, including unanimous passage of the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act of 2018. This new law builds on the District’s strong clean energy policies and firmly places our city in the vanguard of local and state action on climate and clean energy issues.
We write now to ask the Council to prevent backsliding on a critical contributor to DC’s progress over the last dozen years in promoting green buildings – buildings that reflect the most modern, sustainable, energy-efficient and water-efficient building practices. The Green Building Act of 2006 created the Green Building Fee, a small surcharge on building permit applications, to fund advancements in the green building sector in DC. It has produced about two million dollars per year in recent years.
The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and the Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE) manage DC’s Green Building Fund. The fund plays a critical and ongoing role in many of DC's recent green building and climate successes, including: DCRA's green building team, which has greatly expedited and simplified permitting for solar power systems in DC; the greening of the building code to make sure DC’s buildings are healthy and contribute to the climate solution; and grants for important purposes like drafting the Clean Energy DC plan.
Unfortunately, a provision in the Mayor's District of Columbia Fiscal Year 2020 Budget and Financial Plan would allow the Green Building Fund to be used for general purposes at DCRA instead of the critical purpose for which the fund was created and for which the Green Building Fee is collected. This backsliding would improperly divert funds from their intended purpose and imperil DC’s green building progress.
Buildings are responsible for 74 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in DC, according to DOEE's Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Our buildings are getting more energy efficient, and that progress must continue for DC to meet its goal of 50 percent greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2032 and carbon neutrality by 2050. On the heels of passing the strongest clean energy law in the nation, DC should not backtrack on building efficiency by raiding the Green Building Fund.
The provision that would divert funds from the Green Building Fund is found in B23-0209 on page 26, lines 575-584.
The Sierra Club asks the Council to remove this provision from the District’s FY2020 budget, and preserve the Green Building Fund for its intended purposes. Thank you for your support on this important matter.
Sincerely,
Mark Rodeffer
Chair, Sierra Club DC Chapter
Lara Levison
Clean Energy Committee Chair, Sierra Club DC Chapter
DC Chapter Calls for Restoration of Funding for Green Buildings
April 11, 2019