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MEMORANDUM To: Orange County Planning Board From: Orange County Commission for the Environment Renee Price, Chair David Neal, Energy Committee Date: January 26, 2012 Re: Incentives for Energy Efficient Construction and Renovation in Orange County The Orange County Commission for the Environment ( "CFE ") invites the Orange County Planning Board to consider a Low Energy Construction Permitting Incentive ordinance in 2012. N. C. Gen. Stat.§ 153A -340 allows counties to charge "reduced building permit fees or provide partial rebates of building permit fees for buildings" that meet or exceed recognized energy efficient design and construction principals. Members of CFE are available to work with the Planning Board and county staff to review similar ordinances enacted pursuant to this statute (for example, from Catawba County) and from around the country, then to draft an ordinance for consideration by the Orange County Board of Commissioners. Neither the current level of carbon in the atmosphere nor projected increases in greenhouse gas emissions are sustainable. Costly and potentially irreversible adverse climate effects are likely unless mitigation measures — such as increased energy efficiency investments and decreased fossil fuel consumption — are taken in the near future. In Orange County, we cannot wait for policy changes at the state and federal level to encourage increased energy efficiency. Steps taken now to improve efficiency and decrease or eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels for energy production will help lock -in reduced energy use for years to come. Since 2003, Orange County has been a member of Local Governments for Sustainability, an international membership association committed to a sustainable future. Creating incentives for energy efficiency in construction is consistent with Orange County's commitment to a sustainable future. The 2005 Greenhouse Gas Inventory revealed that nearly fifty percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Orange County come from residential and commercial buildings (consistent with national data). Orange County, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro, in conjunction with Hillsborough, are currently working on a revised inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and attempting to identify reduction measures. Making use of the authority granted by the General Assembly to incentivize energy efficient construction is a straightforward way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the county level for the long term. CFE would like to explore crafting an incentive program that would be attractive to lower- income residents, for whom savings on utility bills would provide a particularly important benefit. ' From Architecture 2030, buildings account for 48.7% of total energy consumption in the United States (available at httL / /architecture203O.org/the _problem /buildings _problem why). Co 2� 2tGSSGO ti for the E7ki vGrokswe4e- c% orgwcge couwte D F,4PR Po Po ,< 8181 HzCCs6orouc�G vc � g (q y)