Decarbonization advocates said last week they hope energy efficiency is one issue that will attract bipartisan support in a narrowly divided Congress in 2021.

“Regardless of the outcome of the special [Senate] elections in Georgia, we are going to have some very narrow margins in both the House and the Senate,” U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) told the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) Energy Efficiency and Climate Policy Forum on Thursday. “It is my hope that with the weight of the White House, coupled with its executive agenda, we will be able to do more than you might expect.”

Tonko, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee, said President-elect Joe Biden’s top priorities for 2021 should include getting the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) “back on track.”

“DOE will need more resources and personnel,” he said. “EERE’s employment levels are more than 180 [full-time equivalents] below fiscal year 2013 levels.”

Tonko also said he held out hope that Congress might approve some energy efficiency legislation before the lame duck session ends this month. “Currently people in both chambers are working to reach agreement on an energy package for an end-of-year bill. I don’t want to suggest that it will be the bold suite of clean energy priorities that I want to see advanced. And it is far from certain that anything will be able to be enacted. But the good news is energy conservation measures have always enjoyed strong bipartisan, bicameral support in Congress. So, if any energy policies move this month, there’s a good chance some efficiency and [research and development] provisions will be part of it.”

The daylong conference also included discussions on decarbonizing industry, transportation and buildings.

New York Moving on Building Emissions

Janet Joseph, senior vice president of strategy and market development for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), noted that 70% of the state’s building stock was constructed before they were subject to energy standards. The impact? Space and water heating is the state’s single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, she said.

In response, the state plans to electrify all heating and cooling, make buildings more energy efficient and incorporate more load flexibility into them, Joseph said. “This will become really significant, as we will need to accommodate an electric supply that is largely powered by intermittent renewable resources.”

Joseph said NYSERDA will release its “Carbon Neutral Buildings Roadmap” early next year. By 2030, more than half of heating systems installed in New York will need to be heat pumps; by 2050, nearly all new systems must be heat pumps powered by carbon-free electricity, Joseph said. “Air-source heat pumps, ground-source heat pumps, heat pump hot water heaters [and] high-efficiency systems that can work in cold climates.”

But despite providing heat pump incentives for several years and supporting pilot programs, only about 3% of the state’s homes are using heat pumps for heating. “So, we are clearly at the beginning of a major transformation in how we heat and cool our buildings,” she said.

In April, officials announced New York State Clean Heat, which will include almost $500 million in consumer incentives to be distributed by utilities. It also includes about $200 million in spending by NYSERDA to improve consumer awareness of improvements in heat pump technology and reduce their costs by 25% while increasing the pool of labor to install them by more than 14,000 workers.

The goal, Joseph said, is to position “the state for more affirmative regulatory action that will send a clear market signal for all-electric buildings in the future.”

“We will need regulatory changes through building and construction codes, appliance standards and/or greenhouse gas emission standards that set a clear market signal with a date certain to drive building electrification at the scale and pace we need to achieve our climate goals.”

She said the state also will launch a demonstration initiative next year focused on community-scale district geothermal systems. “We need heat pump solutions that can scale,” she said.

It is also partnering with the real estate industry in seeking decarbonization strategies for tall buildings in New York City and elsewhere, through the Empire Building Challenge.

“We will need low-cost capital, and lots of it, to support investments on the scale of what has been mobilized to support clean water infrastructure in this country. … We will also need continued innovation in these technologies to drive performance and cost improvements, and specifically getting at hard to electrify buildings. There will be some buildings, at least in New York state, that will be very hard to electrify.”

Building Codes

ACEEE Executive Director Steve Nadel also took up the subject of building codes, noting that the “energy use index” for commercial buildings has been reduced by about 50% since 1975, with somewhat smaller cuts for residential buildings, as a result of tightened state and local building codes. New model codes by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) appear to require “significant” additional savings, he said.

But Nadel said legislation to tighten federal code goals have been opposed by homebuilders, whose dominance of the IECC has prevented faster progress.

“There may be some questions about whether the IECC process is fair or whether we need an alternative,” he said. “This year, the membership effectively overrode [the homebuilders]. We’ll see what the process is going forward and whether the IECC process is workable, or whether we need to be looking for alternatives.”

Decarbonizing Manufacturing

The conference also heard from Tom Dower, senior director of government relations for ArcelorMittal, a steel producer and mining company with industrial operations in 18 countries, who briefed ACEEE on the company’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.

In Europe, where most of the company’s operations are located, it has pledged a 30% emissions reduction by 2030, a “very aggressive [goal] for a steelmaker,” Dower said.

He said the company was hoping to pioneer a carbon-neutral method for steel and ironmaking. But, he said, “new policy frameworks will be required to ensure the transition to carbon neutrality is both competitive and technically possible,” decrying the U.S.’ lack of a “coordinated, coherent climate strategy.”

“We’re working in industries that have long investment cycles, and it’s unclear right now whether the market will reward early movers. [It] can require a leap of faith for those who want to make the right steps towards decarbonization but are in a market environment today [in which they] may be harmed economically.

“Uncertainty,” he added, “is not helpful in terms of leadership and making difficult decisions.”