The Energy Department just announced it’s awarded new contracts to 16 energy service companies to finance up to $80 billion in energy-savings projects at federal facilities over the next decade. Energy awarded the contracts under its Super Energy Savings Peformance Contracts (Super ESPC) program. Agencies will be able to issue task orders under the contracts for projects that cut energy and water consumption or costs, increase renewable energy use, and reduce operations and maintenance costs. As I reported back in September, the new contracts are larger in size and scope than existing ESPCs and are expected to spur significant growth in…
Browsing: Facilities
Federal building managers already are buzzing over President-elect Barack Obama’s plan, announced in his weekend radio address, to make public buildings more energy efficient. Obama said he would launch a “massive effort” to upgrade federal buildings with new heating systems and more efficient light bulbs to help jumpstart the economy. Additional details will be released in coming weeks, with the hope that Congress will pass the plan immediately after reconvening in January. Agencies already are under intense pressure to meet existing energy reduction mandates, so the announcement that more requirements are forthcoming was a “curveball,” said Mark Ewing, who manages energy consumption…
We all know that the Capitol Visitor Center was three years behind schedule and nearly $400 million over budget. But for all that extra time and money, you would have thought someone would have made sure Congress got its facts straight. Engraved in the center’s walls is the saying “E Pluribus Unum,†Latin for “from many, one.†The carving is described as the national motto, but it’s not. A 1956 act of Congress made the nation’s official motto “In God We Trust.†Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has raised a ruckus over the failure to include the nation’s official motto and the Pledge…
Plans for a consolidated home for the newest Cabinet agency, the Homeland Security Department, are laid out in impressive detail in a series of documents that were submitted to federal planning officials earlier this week. Here are some highlights: The master plan calls for 4.5 million square feet of new and existing office space, plus another 1.5 million square feet of parking. Most of the development will be located on the west campus of the former St. Elizabeths mental hospital, a 176-acre site in southeast Washington that predates the Civil War. However, about 750,000 square feet of office space and another 270,000 square…
A new Capitol Visitor Center. The center opened for media tours today, giving reporters and photographers their first chance to see the space that will soon greet every visitor to the Capitol. The space is located underground on the east front of the Capitol, but soaring skylights give you close up views of the Capitol dome, making you hardly feel like you’re in a basement or bunker. The CVC, which opens to the public Dec. 2, has been decades in the making. Like any government project, it took years to get underway, with construction starting six years ago. The initial…