Name: ENERGY MATTERS: Industrial Efficiency
Uploaded: 2016-07-23T03:10:01.000Z
Duration: 26 min 22 s
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MICHAEL HESS: Hello. And welcome to the latest edition of Energy Matters. I’m Michael Hess,

Gerund

a new media specialist here at the Energy Department. And joining me today is Dr. Kathleen

Hogan, assistant deputy secretary for energy efficiency. Today we’ll be discussing how

the cost savings associated with industrial energy efficiency affects American companies

and their global competitiveness. But before we start with the questions, Dr. Hogan, is

KATHLEEN HOGAN: Sure. I’d like to talk a little bit about what we’re doing here at

the Department of Energy. You know, we’re working to develop energy efficiency initiatives

that improve our economic competitiveness, create jobs, improve our energy security,

lower costs and reduce pollution. And today we’ll be specifically focusing on two of

our major initiatives: one, the Better Buildings and Better Plants Program, and the other,

The first one, Better Buildings, Better Plants, is focused on boosting the competitiveness

of companies, really, in the here and now. In this program we’re providing assistance

to companies that commit to achieving a 25 percent improvement in their energy intensity

over the next 10 years, if not earlier. In the other, the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative,

we’ll be working with organizations to address early-stage technical challenges, with some

innovative manufacturing processes as materials, that have huge potential for the United States.

And while we’re still in the early stages of this program, it clearly has stuck a chord

with American businesses. In response to $120 million solicitation we have open, we’ve

received over 1,400 letters of interest representing over $4 billion in work. So we are – we’re

looking forward to reviewing these proposals once they all come in, and really working

on some outstanding investments to grow American leadership in manufacturing technologies,

So I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions during today’s Live Chat.

MR. HESS: All right. Well, we’ve gotten – we’ve gotten a number of emails, Facebook

status – or rather comments, and Tweets as well. There’s been a common theme here,

actually. To paraphrase several questions: How important is this energy-efficient manufacturing

and industrial technology to strengthening our economy?

MS. HOGAN: Well, certainly that’s a great place to get started today. You know, our

manufacturing sector in the United States truly is a big part of what we do. It represents

12 million jobs, and it represents about 60 percent of our exports – so also then, a

big part of our GNP. So manufacturing is really critical to our economy. And what we want

to be doing is continuing to boost its competitiveness, boost its leadership around the world so we

can continue to strengthen our economic position. So really, manufacturing – advanced manufacturing

and U.S. competitiveness really go hand in hand.

MR. HESS: Great. And, you know, that – there are the processes that we’re dealing with,

but then there’s also, well, the buildings, right? And that’s where we’re coming into

our second question – an actual two-part question from Mark (sp) on Facebook, who asks

why there aren’t tighter regulations right now for energy efficiency and commercial buildings.

So first, what are the barriers to making commercial buildings more energy-efficient?

And second, what would make buildings more energy – would making – sorry – buildings

more energy-efficient make our economy stronger?

MS. HOGAN: Right. So the buildings area, you know, does have a lot of opportunity for energy

efficiency improvements, and the questioner has really asked, first, about building codes.

So building codes are something that we are doing across the country. And really, the

Department of Energy’s role there is to do determinations around the energy savings

that result from sort of new-model energy codes that come to us through consensus stakeholder

So can those codes that the stakeholders are developing – could they be more stringent?

They can, and they do get more stringent over time. I think right now we’re in the process

of doing a code determination on a code that improves the commercial building energy efficiency

for new construction by something in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 percent. So we will be seeing

tighter codes for commercial buildings soon.

Now, at the same time, why are we doing those codes? It is because we have sort of a disconnect

in the marketplace, where the people that sort of build the buildings typically aren’t

the people that are in the buildings, occupy them and pay the energy bills. And that’s,

you know, a market failure, a market barrier. And the codes are there to help us build to

the level that’s cost-effective so when the building gets handed over to the owner,

or the tenants lease the building, they won’t be paying a higher energy bill than they otherwise

But I did say in there that – you know, that we’re building to a level that’s

cost effective. And that’s truly what we want to keep doing, is finding the right level

of the codes so that when you put the better technologies and the practices in the buildings,

it really is a good payback for the whole sort of life cycle and system. So as we are

looking forward to the upcoming increased stringency of the commercial code – again,

it’ll get more stringent, but it will also be in a cost-effective way as well.

So we are looking forward to that happening and continuing to offer the type of assistance

the Department of Energy can to assist people in getting to those levels and, you know,

the training and enforcement – all so we can reap all those benefits.

MR. HESS: Now, you – so right now you’re talking a lot about the investments that the

Department of Energy – Energy Department has in programs and projects, which actually

comes from Chris (sp). He’s asking that as well in an email: Where we have so many

– so many programs, what accounts for manufacturers not using those? And what is our department

doing to encourage those manufacturers to pursue energy efficiency more aggressively?

MS. HOGAN: Yeah, so we talk a lot about energy efficiency in this country. And we talk about

the low-hanging fruit. We talk about energy efficiency being sort of the lowest-cost path

to a clean-energy future. And all those things are true. And I guess the other thing we hear

is we’ve been talking about energy efficiency for a while, and a lot of that low-hanging

fruit is still there. So why is it still there? Well – you know, because all those things

are true. Energy efficiency is low cost, it’s the low-hanging fruit, and indeed, much of

And it is because there are a variety of market barriers in – you know, in – or just across

the economy, whether it’s in our industrial facilities, in our companies, in our buildings,

that we really have to get together to address. When you look at industrial companies, some

of the issues there are just that the efficiency is in enough different places across the facilities

that it’s a little bit hard to get organized in a way that you’re routinely going out

there and finding the energy efficiency opportunities, making the small investments that need to

be made, and then reaping those benefits.

One of the things we have found in working with lots of companies across the country,

is that if we can work with the executive suite in those organizations so that the executives

truly understand the opportunities that are there and the – sort of the path to implement

sort of energy management throughout their organization, and will set energy efficiency

goals for the organization, you can really engage the whole culture of the organization

in achieving those savings and delivering the benefits to the organization.

But it is still interesting, as you look across the country at this point in time, that there

are still many, many companies that haven’t really established an energy-savings target

for their organization. Many have – and leading organizations, and many of them we’re

working with through the Better Buildings, Better Plants program. But there are many

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