Government Operations committee  Certainly the electricity sector in the U.S. at large is getting cleaner, so we see not just the retirement of coal plants and their replacement with natural gas plants all over the U.S. and in very coal-dependent areas—

Government Operations committee  It's both to natural gas and renewable energy projects. Solar and wind projects in the U.S. have been growing very quickly. For example, in California we get between probably 30% and 35% of our energy from renewables, such as solar, wind, geothermal and some other things like bio

Government Operations committee  Certainly I think there's a lot of opportunity for both retrofitting of buildings and having standards for new construction. The federal government is always building new buildings, so there's an opportunity there as well. I also think energy savings are good for the agency budge

Government Operations committee  Building codes in the U.S. tend to be at the local level, although California has a statewide energy building code that's been very effective in reducing energy use in buildings in California. I think for the federal government it has really been around both standards for new con

Government Operations committee  The General Services Administration, which is kind of the buyer—

Government Operations committee  —for most federal agencies has worked with these large suppliers. I don't know offhand. I could probably get you that information.

Government Operations committee  At least in the United States, it sort of depends on where you are. In California, most of the greenhouse gas emissions right now come from the transportation sector, and certainly most of the air pollution comes from the transportation sector. However, in other parts of the coun

Government Operations committee  It did a lot of outreach with its large suppliers. It did a number of workshops and other things, and I think many large companies are now starting to get these requests, not just from the U.S. federal government, but from other large entities that they do business with. The oth

Government Operations committee  I think the most effective programs have really been, as I said in my opening statement, where there is a business case to undertake them. For many agencies, energy use is a big budget component. For example, the Department of Defense spends literally billions of dollars every ye

Government Operations committee  Yes, it's both. The bases are like little cities, and in some cases big cities, depending on where you are. In the operations of those bases, energy use is a big cost component and potentially a vulnerability, so those bases have been very focused on energy management both for th

Government Operations committee  A number of bases have entered into third party contracts to do renewable energy projects. For example, in California, there's a large marine base called Fort Irwin that has done a number of solar projects and has worked with third party developers to do a solar project. We visit

Government Operations committee  The U.S. federal government has had a number of efforts around sustainable procurement, and it's a feature of all the directives to federal agencies around sustainability. There's sort of a general code, the federal acquisition regulation out of the General Services Administratio

Government Operations committee  There are a few things that I would give as examples. One thing that we did in about 2010—and it continues—is to issue a better buildings challenge at the community level to encourage people who have commercial buildings to reduce their energy use by 20% in 10 years. They are abl

Government Operations committee  Generally, you're right that people in Los Angeles connect environmental degradation and climate change to public health issues. There's been an effort in the city of Los Angeles to promote the growth of green jobs, in part through activities the city itself has undertaken to red

Government Operations committee  In California this has been a subject of public discussion for probably 15 years now. I think the public generally sees the connection between climate change and impacts in their community. You are probably aware that California has suffered some of the worst wildfires it has eve