The Obama administration is taking several steps Thursday that officials say will advance the energy efficiency portion of the White House climate change plan unveiled in late June.
The Environmental Protection Agency will announce new efforts to help businesses cut energy use, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is seeking to help integrate energy efficiency into home mortgages.
Senior State Department and White House aides, meanwhile, will emphasize efficiency during Thursday’s meeting in Krakow, Poland, of the multilateral Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF).
The steps, while incremental, are a piece of what officials call wide-ranging efforts to help double U.S. energy “productivity” — that is, energy use relative to economic output — by 2030, while working with other nations to boost efficiency, too.
A senior official said in an interview the efforts are part of the implementation process for the White House’s second-term climate plan, which is a series of executive-level actions that don’t depend on congressional approval.
“This is a really aggressive campaign across the federal government and something that is a priority not only for the president, but a number of agencies, and we are looking at opportunities domestically and internationally,” the official said.
The EPA on Thursday will unveil upgrades to the online “Portfolio Manager” for the long-running federal EnergyStar building and appliance efficiency program.
The online tool is designed to help businesses measure and track energy use.