December 3, 2007
On behalf of PennEnvironment’s citizen members, I am writing to urge you to support two critical pieces of legislation—Energy Special Session House Bill 5 (M. Smith) and Energy Special Session House Bill 4 (Rubley)—in the effort to promote “green” building construction in Pennsylvania.
One of the easiest ways to modernize Pennsylvania’s energy system while protecting our environment and saving ratepayers’ money is to use energy-efficient building practices to make high-performance green buildings. These buildings use a fraction of the energy of other buildings, decreasing energy demand from polluting energy sources and saving Pennsylvania businesses and homeowners’ money on their electricity bills. In fact, green buildings can cut operational costs by 50 percent compared to traditionally- constructed buildings.
These two pieces of legislation would advance green building construction in two important ways. First, Special Session HB 5 would help promote green building construction in the private sector by providing tax credits for businesses and developers building high-performance green buildings over 10,000 square feet. Second, Special Session HB 4 would make Pennsylvania’s state government a leader in green building construction by requiring that all new or newly-renovated state and state-funded buildings of at least 10,000 square feet to meet high performance green building standards.
Taken together, these important pieces of legislation will provide significant benefits for Pennsylvania’s environment and public health by promoting the construction of green buildings in the Commonwealth. We therefore urge your support of both bills.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at nwillcox@pennenvironment.org or at 215-732-5897 with any questions on this legislation or any other environmental issues on which PennEnvironment works.
Sincerely,
Nathan Willcox, Clean Energy and Air Advocate
PennEnvironment
