NAA/NMHC support a comprehensive national energy policy that addresses long-term production, environmental sus-tainability and energy efficiency.

NAA/NMHC support the principles behind green and energy efficient building, but believe that the uncertainties of cost, product availability and technical and operational limitations should be properly addressed before mandatory green re-quirements are implemented.

We support tax incentives to spur the increased development of high performance new construction and energy effi-cient upgrades to the existing building stock and call on Congress to renew and expand existing energy efficiency tax incentives for commercial properties set to expire at the end of 2008.

Background

Congress continues to be focused on several hot-button energy issues including global climate change, the availability of foreign oil and domestic energy production. Congressional efforts to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have led many lawmakers to focus on the GHG contributions made by the built environment with the goal of increasing building energy efficiency in order to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.

While advances in building science have made it possible to make new buildings highly efficient and reduce energy and water consumption in existing buildings, altering the energy performance in existing buildings requires an understanding of how the specific building structure and systems work together. A one-size-fits-all legislative approach that would require the existing building stock to meet a certain energy performance level is unworkable and will have the direct consequence of exacerbating the shortage of safe, affordable apartment housing.

One way lawmakers seek to achieve their energy efficiency goals is to impose third-party green building standards on new and existing properties. In addition, a growing number of state and local governments are also implementing far-reaching programs that require new buildings to meet certain green building standards. These federal, state and local mandates are problematic for the apartment industry, however, because most of these standards were developed for commercial office properties. This makes it hard for low- and mid-rise apartment properties to comply with them.

The apartment industry is already engaged in sustainable development practices and has developed a variety of green buildings throughout the U.S. In fact, NAA/NMHC have taken a lead role in the development of a new ANSI standard that is the first to directly address apartments. We oppose federal efforts to designate a particular green standard as the ''one'' to be followed, especially because no standard is appropriate for all property types in all climates. Instead, we believe strongly that the existing consensus-based system for developing state and local building codes will spur the construction of high-performance buildings.

Ultimately, however, the fastest way to effect change in the existing building stock is not to impose specific building stan-dard mandates, but to provide tax incentives to enable building owners to afford the investments required to realize great-er energy efficiency. Favorable tax treatment, including an enhanced depreciation schedule for certain building systems, would assist many property owners who do not have the resources to make capital investments to improve the energy performance of their assets. This is even more important as the current financial crisis impacts property values and makes it more difficult for owners to access capital.