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Cutting Government's Energy Consumption
 By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, June 25, 2008  |  08:29 AM

Attention federal agencies already daunted by the prospect of meeting the requirements of President Bush's mandate to reduce energy consumption: Both Barack Obama and John McCain are looking to one-up the president.

The Washington Post reports today on McCain's speech yesterday on energy policy, in which he proposed to further reduce the government's consumption. Among the specific proposals: Buy nothing but flex-fuel capable, plug-in hybrid, or clean natural gas-powered cars for the federal fleet from here on out, and retrofit federal buildings with green technology.

Obama already has released his own plan to make new federal buildings 40 percent more efficient than current ones within five years, to boost the efficiency of existing buildings by 25 percent over the same period and to make sure government gets 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Of course, agencies have had their own green initiatives under way for years. David Bibb, the General Services Administration's acting administrator, has launched a "Summer of Green" tour of the country to highlight his agency's effort to push green procurement and policies. Among the facts he's touting: GSA already has helped agencies purchase more than 131,000 alternative fuel vehicles.

Government Executive will take a comprehensive look at how agencies across government are making efforts to go green in our August issue.



Comments


How about mandating that ALL agencies' employees, save for ones that have a pure need to keep them active 24/7, shut their computers off completely before going home for the day? A lot of IT folks argue that they need all of these power supplies running all night in case they need to "push" an upgrade. Yet it's funny how I see upgrades not even bothering to install themselves until I log on to my computer in the morning.

My mom and dad drilled it into my head to turn the light off if I wasn't using it. How come Uncle Sam can't remember this simple lesson? I may be forbidden to shut the computer down at night, but I at least turn the monitors off.

Want to save money? Look at the obvious first: Turn the machines and their peripherals off at night.

Tigerhawk  | Wednesday, June 25, 2008 |  04:12 PM


The green plans that federal agencies have seem to be more hype then action. The federal government is still one of the biggest wasters of energy in the country. But, federal execs put a lot of spin in their reports just like they fudge productivity reports. Often to justify their jobs.

I think the only way to achieve real conservation in the government will be to have some kind of energy "police" who can act autonomously. Agencies will not rat themselves out.

Robert M.  | Wednesday, June 25, 2008 |  11:19 AM


Obama continue to articulate nothing so it appears that his solution to the issue is hot air maybe they can harness that to increase wind power

dan ketter  | Wednesday, June 25, 2008 |  09:41 AM



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Government Executive Editor Tom Shoop takes a look at news and events affecting the federal bureaucracy, from the perspective of a longtime observer of government.

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