All new state-funded facilities will be required to be designed and constructed in accordance with "green building" energy efficiency standards if legislation now being considered in the Ohio House of Representatives becomes law.
Substitute House Bill 251, which is receiving hearings in the House Public Utilities and Energy Committee, requires the state Department of Administrative Services' Office of Energy to develop energy conservation rules that are 20 percent higher than standards specified by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
The lease, design, construction, operation and maintenance of all state-funded facilities, defined as any facility built with any state money or financial guarantees, would have to be built in compliance with the rules.
The rules also would require that state-funded facilities in use at the end of 2005 reduce their energy usage by at least 20 percent per square foot by 2014.
In addition, the bill requires that state purchases of products and equipment, including motor vehicles, be based on federal "Energy Star" guidelines, where such guidelines exist.