Friday, March 5, 2010, 11:47am PST | Modified: July 23, 2010, 11:26 AM

Merkley, Pryor propose efficiency renovation program

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Senator Jeff Merkley

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., introduced legislation Thursday to create jobs by promoting the installation of energy-efficient renovations in commercial and multi-family residential buildings.

Merkley and Pryor were joined by Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., as original co-sponsors of the Building Star legislation.

The program would use rebates and low-interest loans, in combination with federal funds, to encourage efficiency upgrades for commercial buildings. A whitepaper about the program assumes a $6 billion public investment in the program, which it calls a jobs bill.

In addition to rebates to reduce the cost of energy-saving measures such as high-efficiency heating and improved insulation, Building Star would also extend low-interest financing options to small businesses and other building owners. Such financing arrangements help building owners with the costs of a building renovation by letting them pay off the cost out of the savings on their energy bill.

Building Star is similar to Home Star, a parallel program put forward by Merkley and three other senators that offers energy-efficiency assistance to homeowners.

A release from Merkeley’s office estimates the Building Star program will create 150,000 jobs in hard-hit sectors such as construction and manufacturing and will save businesses a total of $3 billion on energy bills.

“Clean energy is not only the next great growth industry, but it’s an engine for job creation today,” Merkley said in a news release.

AirAdvice, a Portland company that makes monitoring software for building energy systems called BuildingAdvice, applauded the Building Star program, in no small part because it represents a growth opportunity for the 10-year-old, 20-employee company.

“This program presents both immediate benefits to energy costs and jobs, as well as the potential to have a profound long term impact on driving down overall energy consumption by commercial buildings,” said AirAdvice’s marketing director Kevin Skurski. “Building Star reinforces the notion that the best form of energy independence is to not need as much of it.”

Skurski said he expects the program to increase demand for his business, which has 1,200 contractors nationwide.

The financing components of Building Star and, its residential brother Home Star, were first put forward when Merkley and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., introduced the Consumer and Business Clean Energy Financing Act of 2009.