Government Is Greening Energy Contracting

A bipartisan bill has recently been introduced in Congress that amends the National Energy Conservation Policy Act to incorporate an annual contracting goal of $1 billion for energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs), a type of contract under which contractors bear the cost of energy-efficiency improvements and are repaid from savings that come from those improvements. The purpose of the legislation is to encourage federal agencies to use ESPCs and other contracting vehicles to implement energy- or water-saving or other conservation measures and to track and report on energy savings results.