New Winter Vocabulary Edition

This winter has been brutal for large parts of the United States. It has spawned lots of new weather terms, like polar vortex, but now there is Cryoseism or "Frost Quakes."

February Advocates Call

A quick reminder about February's Advocates call. Monday, Febraury 10th, 4-5pm ET. Click here for the webinar: https://usgbc.webex.com/usgbc/j.php?MTID=m28fd11ebae3ab7142ac9a60a7136be21

Agenda:

1. Welcome

2. State fights: AL, MD, OH, SC, WA 

3. Chapter Advocacy Days

4. Around the country updates

5. Wrap-Up

Federal Update

Senator Baucus was confirmed to serve as the new ambassador to China. This sets off new musical chairs in some of important committees.

Senator Wyden will become the new chair of the finance committee. This move will likely slow some of the finance committee action on comprehensive tax reform. Wyden has publically expressed that tax extenders, including some lapsed building efficiency credits, will early priority for him. There has been no public announcement of staff changes at finance.

Senator Landrieu will become the new chair of the energy committee. Given Louisiana’s oil and gas density there is a fair bit of prognostication that extraction and public lands may be more in focus for the rest of the calendar year. This may make movement on the energy efficiency legislation, Shaheen-Portman, more challenging.

Anti-LEED Bills

The past two weeks has been very busy with a total of 6 committee hearings on anti-LEED bills in five states. Ohio has held 2 hearings on SCR 25. Brendan Ownes, VP of LEED Technical Development testified before the Ohio Senate Energy and Natural Resources. You can read Brendan's testimony here. The bill is up for testimony again this coming Tuesday, February 11th. There was also testimony heard in Washington, SB 631, in South Carolina, H.3592, and in Maryland, HB207. To hear more, please join us for the February Advocates call.

KSE Legislative Tracking Service

USGBC subscribed to a state legislative tracking service. Each chapter is allowed one point of contact to receive the legislative tracking updates. I am updating this information, please fill out this form to update the POC for your chapter. 

Chapter Advocacy Days

I am putting together a calendar of chapter advocacy days for 2014. Please email me, ckuo@usgbc.org and title it "Advocacy Day" with the date of your chapter's advocacy day. USGBC staff would like to join some chapters for these events. Cecilia Shutters and I were in Georgia for their advocacy day, however, the winter weather intervened and the event was rescheduled. We are also joining Iowa's advocacy day next week.