President Obama earlier this month recommended funding increases for the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Program (BTP) -- a program whose mission is to "change the landscape of energy demand in homes and buildings" -- but even if the proposed boost is granted, BTP may continue to face substantial obstacles.
"A major economic factor which creates significant challenges for BTP performance goals is the current state of the housing market," Obama stated through DOE in his fiscal 2011 budget request. "With new home starts down, efforts to demonstrate new technologies and design packages are significantly more challenging. The impacts of these challenges are currently being assessed and have the potential to require BTP to reconfigure annual performance metrics to reflect the longer timeline needed to achieve net-zero-energy-building goals." Details of Obama's proposed FY'11 green-building budgets for DOE and three other federal agencies are provided in this edition of Green Building Insider.
Also in this issue, the ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1 Committee's chairperson informs
GBI of the strategy that is being used to encourage adoption of the new green-buildings standard, congressional lawmakers want 10 million solar rooftops, there are several new LEED certifications to report, new energy-conservation standards have taken effect in Illinois, Bryan Jackson reports on a "quiet green revolution," and Terry Miller examines the LEED Professional program.
