ACCORDING to a column from the Center for American Progress, the setting of ambitious energy efficiency standards in U.S. buildings can lower energy costs for consumers, encourage job growth, and reduce energy-related pollution and carbon emissions.

The Center for American Progress is an independent non-partisan organisation dedicated to improving the lives of the population of the United States.

The column states: “By upgrading energy efficiency in buildings, the United States can realistically lower energy costs for consumers, encourage job growth, and reduce energy-related pollution and carbon emissions. Buildings present a vast opportunity for Congress to revitalize the core of U.S. infrastructure and improve communities across the country.”

It also comments that the U.S. Department of Energy has found that upgrading energy efficiency in the country’s existing building stock would cut residential energy consumption in half and reduce commercial energy consumption by 46%.

An ambitious and progressive energy efficiency policy could ease the financial burdens of the nation’s most underserved populations, the column says. Any infrastructure plan from Congress should encourage these energy-efficient upgrades to the nation’s building stock.

Read the column: “Energy-Efficient Buildings Are Central to Modernizing U.S. Infrastructure” by Bianca Majumder and Luke Bassett.

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