PREPARING FOR THE 82ND LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Advocacy

Written by USGBC

With the previous 81st State of Texas legislative session now past, the North Texas Green Council Advocacy Teams are already focused upon the next State legislative session. In preparing for the 82nd Legislative Session, the State Team has united on the four primary focus areas delineated below.
Schools Develop recommendations for encouraging school districts to provide resource-efficient school buildings that will be cost effective over the life of the building, teach students about the value of conserving energy and water, and facilitate learning through improved indoor environmental quality. 

Green schools cost less to operate, freeing resources to improve students’ education. Carefully planned acoustics, abundant daylight and improved indoor air quality have a demonstrated positive impact on children’s ability to learn.

CODES

Monitor the rule-making of the State Energy Conservation Office with regard to building codes.
Energy efficiency is perhaps the most critical element of sustainable building programs.  Building operations use more than 70% of the electricity generated in this country and cause the emission of more than 40% of greenhouse gases.
Municipalities throughout the state are establishing their own green building programs.  The expenditure of much time and effort could be avoided by the immediate adoption by the state of the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code and subsequent revisions.

BUILDINGS

Research and recommend the best ways to require high-performance/resource-efficiency standards for new and existing state-owned buildings.
A recent study of LEED-certified buildings designed by a Houston architecture firm found that on average the buildings have a 51% improvement in energy efficiency as compared to a typical existing building of the same type. They also have a 56% average savings of water, including water used both inside and outside of the building.  Energy and water savings together yield an average of $1.48 per square foot of building per year. The sampled buildings achieve an average payback period of less than one year; in general, the larger the building, the shorter the payback period.

CONSERVATION

Review and evaluate best practices for water conservation in public and privately owned industrial, commercial and residential buildings.  Make recommendations for most effective regulatory approaches.

Water conservation and water quality are increasingly important to the state.  Texas' 2007 State Water Plan recommends 600,000 acre-feet of municipal water conservation statewide. A recent National Wildlife Federation report shows that there is an additional one million acre-feet of readily available conservation above and beyond what the State Water Plan calls for.

The state plan also recommends 16 new reservoirs, with most of that water going to municipal uses. All those new reservoirs combined would produce roughly one million acre-feet of water--the same amount that could gained from increased water conservation. (Source: TexasWaterMatters.org website)