Upcoming Action by Congress Could Fund Local, Green Projects Bill Risse, account executive for Johnson Controls, said none of the upgrades his company has been doing at six city-owned buildings in York is particularly dramatic.
The upgrades consist of pretty basic, nuts-and-bolts stuff -- better insulation, more efficient heating and air conditioning and lighting fixtures that provide more light with less power.
Yet those improvements will pay for themselves in the form of reduced energy costs, Risse said. They're expected to cost about $1.5 million and save about $2.5 million over 15 years.
That's one of the reasons why state environmental advocacy group Penn Environment chose to spotlight the York project in a report released Tuesday on clean energy in Pennsylvania.
Adam Garber is a field organizer who worked on the report, called "Clean Energy, Bright Future." He said Penn Environment and its sister organizations throughout the country released different versions of the report Tuesday to encourage congressional funding of clean energy programs.
Federal funding to encourage green industries is a major portion of the incoming Barack Obama administration's economic and environmental goals. No specific dollar amount for such an investment has been set, but Garber said his organization is calling for a national investment of $150 billion.
Penn Environment highlighted the York upgrades, part of the state's Guaranteed Energy Savings Act program, as a prime example of the type of work the federal funding could support. Garber said such work has several important benefits: it's a potential job creator, it helps the environment, and it ultimately pays for itself. "We wanted to highlight a set of examples across Pennsylvania that Congress could invest in," Garber said. "It's not an ideological thing. It's an opportunity to save people money on their utilities."
Risse said the work in York is about 80 percent done. If Congress does eventually pass an investment program in clean energy, they might be able to use it to fund a few additional upgrades that weren't cost effective as things stand now.
For the bulk of the project, however, the savings will pay for themselves. In that respect, Risse said, he believes it could serve as an example not just for the rest of the state, but the rest of the country.
"It helps eliminate the barrier, which is often 'How do you pay for it?'" Risse said.
