Greg Thomas Advises the U.S. Senate on Energy Efficient Housing

Online, November 18, 2009 (Newswire.com) - Greg Thomas, President and CEO of Performance Systems Development, joined a panel of industry experts to advise Senate Energy Committee staff on energy efficient affordable housing. Proposed Senate legislation is calling for more than $2.5 billion in new funding for single-family and multi-family housing, aimed largely at energy efficiency measures. The move to direct funding to multi-family initiatives will help create healthier, more comfortable, and cost-effective housing for low-income families, as new energy efficiency standards are required for projects funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

In a briefing before the staff of U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee members in Washington on Monday, PSD President and CEO Greg Thomas outlined issues involved in reporting measured energy savings. Performance Systems Development provides verified savings reports and is a critical partner in determining the efficacy of energy efficiency programs for multi-family housing. The panel of leaders in affordable housing programs at the briefing also included Enterprise Community Partners and the US Green Building Council. PSD has worked closely with Enterprise Community Partners over the last several years to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency programs for low-income housing.

"Achieving inexpensive data access to energy usage data will be a game changer for the energy efficiency industry," says Thomas. "I was pleased to find that Senate staff understood the importance of this issue."

The briefing, sponsored by the staff of Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), was intended to bridge the gap in understanding of housing issues within the energy committee. This past year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has greatly increased funding available for energy efficiency and weatherization programs, but an effective way to use the funding for multifamily housing has not been put into place.