Tennessee: Bredesen Looks to Improve State’s Energy Efficiency

By Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Jun. 7–Tennessee’s budget crunch won’t deter the state from investing in more energy-efficient buildings and vehicles, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Friday.

During a meeting of his Energy Policy Task Force in Chattanooga, the governor said the state needs to “lead by example,” and he asked a new ad-hoc group he appointed Friday to come up with recommendations by July on how state government can begin cutting its energy and fuel consumption.

“This is important to me, and I want to get on with it,” Gov. Bredesen said. “I don’t think there is any question that our state buildings are not particularly well run when it comes to energy efficiency and usage. I know because I live in the capitol where the lights are on 24-7.”

Indeed, a consultant’s report found the capitol building to be the least efficient of any state office studied. For its size, the state spends more than three times as much as it does on energy for the nearby Andrew Jackson office building that underwent an efficiency upgrade in the 1990s.

Ryan Gooch, director of the state’s energy policy, said the state spent less than $4 million on lighting, heating and cooling upgrades at the Andrew and Rachel Jackson office buildings. Those improvements are yielding more than $800,000 a year in energy savings, paying back the state’s initial investment in less than five years.

“My only question is, why aren’t we doing that with every state office?” asked John Noel, president of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and one of the 12 members of the Governor’s Energy Policy Task Force.

Mr. Noel said rising natural gas, fuel and coal prices soon will push up electricity rates even more and make such conservation even more critical.

“The gas pump monster is now approaching the light switch,” he said.

Gov. Bredesen agreed more such efforts are needed, and he asked Mr. Noel Friday to lead a group to come up with recommendations for energy improvements and investments by July.

“There’s still a lot of low-hanging fruit to pick,” the governor said.

Tennesseans use the second highest amount of electricity per capita of any state, behind only neighboring Alabama, according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration.

An audit by the Tennessee comptroller earlier this year found that state government’s energy conservation efforts have suffered from poor data collection and inadequate attention to the issue.

“Legislation and department initiatives have identified reducing energy costs as a priority, but it is unclear exactly how much the state spends on energy and how much could be saved,” the audit concluded.

The governor conceded that department heads don’t look for energy efficiency in their annual budget proposals, and he urged the task force and state bureaucrats to focus more attention on conservation.

Gov. Bredesen said budget cuts in the next fiscal year shouldn’t slow the state from implementing efficiency measures to cut energy use and save money over time, especially with energy costs on the rise.

“Don’t worry about the sources of funding, just focus on the best ways to cut our energy use,” he told the group. “Even in a year in which we had no money for anything new, we are still spending tens of millions of dollars on maintenance of buildings across the state.”

Gov. Bredesen said the state needs to “lead by example” by improving the efficiency of buildings for which the state now spends more than $129 million a year on energy costs. The state already has set a goal of cutting its vehicle fuel consumption by 20 percent by 2010.

The ad hoc group being charged by Mr. Noel will include state Sen. Rosalind Kurita, D-Clarksville, state Rep. Les Winningham, D-Huntsville, and Vanderbilt University law professor Michael Vandenbergh.

Another council that will be established this summer will begin developing plans to make grants and low-interest loans to school systems for energy improvements with $90 million of excess lottery funds. Rep. Winningham, who authored the legislation to allocate excess lottery funds for energy improvements, said many schools are “energy hogs,” and efficiency gains quickly should be paid back into the revolving loan fund to help make even more loans back to schools.

Conservation proponents hailed this year’s efforts to upgrade Tennessee’s energy efficiency, which included adoption by the Legislature of newer building codes to ensure more insulation and energy seals.

“This is arguably the biggest year for energy conservation in 30 years in Tennessee, and it’s going to get even bigger,” said Alex Tapia, program manager for the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance in Nashville. “It’s a momentous turning point in Tennessee and for the entire country, because what happens here really trickles throughout the country through TVA, Oak Ridge and all of their outlets.”

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