What will a Joe Biden administration look like for facility managers? If you’re a fan of building efficiency, renewable energy, and equipment standards, then Joe Biden has good news for you. These are just a few of the strategies the president-elect has promised to focus on in his Sustainable Infrastructure and Clean Energy Plan.
Perhaps the most ambitious of Biden’s building-focused plans is to move the U.S. to 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2035 and net-zero energy in the entire U.S. economy by 2050. This includes not just investments in solar and wind, but also in carbon capture and sequestration, grid-scale storage, and improved grid transmission technology. The Biden Administrations plans to start a new federal agency called the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA-C) to develop these new technologies.
Specifically related to buildings, Biden has repeatedly promised to upgrade 4 million buildings to make them more energy efficient. We’ve long known existing buildings are where the most hay can be made in terms of helping to reduce carbon emissions, and the Biden administration plans to focus on deep energy retrofits from the get-go. Biden also hopes to pass legislation that all new commercial buildings must be net-zero energy by 2030, mirroring plans already in place in California.
Tangentially related to buildings, Biden has also pledged to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, reinstate limits on methane pollution, and accelerate the growth of electric vehicles by installing 500,000 public electric vehicle charging stations.
This post was submitted by Greg Zimmerman, editor, Building Operating Management and FacilitiesNet.com.
