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In this series, we’re exploring state and local building efficiency regulations to give you a bird’s-eye view of the policies that may impact your portfolio.
While the Great Lakes State is not known for legislating robust building efficiency requirements, it is known for its longstanding utility-based energy efficiency programs. A key set of policies is its mandatory Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS), which requires utilities to achieve a certain percentage of energy savings based on the amount of electricity or natural gas sold in the state (see more details in table below).
In addition to the EERS, the Clean and Renewable Energy and Energy Waste Reduction Act requires utilities to develop energy waste reduction programs to help customers save on energy costs. Notably, for almost a decade, Michigan’s utilities have helped customers save almost $6 billion in electric costs and close to $2 billion in natural gas costs.
In September 2020, Governor Whitmer issued Executive Directive 2020 - 10 Building a Carbon-Neutral Michigan, which calls for a state-wide 28% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions against a 2005 baseline and economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2050. To ensure progress towards these goals, the directive also mandates that new construction state-owned-and-operated buildings must achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.
All of this begs the question: how will Michigan meet these sweeping goals, especially in the absence of top-down efficiency requirements? Will its voluntary energy reduction and incentive programs garner enough participation to make meaningful progress towards its state-wide targets? The action plan for state-wide greenhouse gas emissions is due at the end of the year, so we will soon find out. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, visit Michigan’s Public Service Commission Website to learn more about utility energy waste reduction programs. For a full list of incentive programs, tax credits and rebates, please refer to the Database of State Incentive and Renewable Energy Programs.
Learn more about how Aquicore makes it easy to collect the energy data needed to comply with local, city, and state benchmarking regulations and some incentive programs.
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