There are 14 recommendations in the commercial sector, a catch-all category excluding public buildings and residential buildings of less than five units.

Among them:

Establish energy performance standards for new construction and major renovations.

Improve the building code for energy requirements.

Require solar readiness for all new construction and major renovations.

There were two forks of work, an interim standard and for a demonstration project, as the governor requested in his charge to the group.

In the former:

Adopt prescriptive standards, such as optimizing building orientation or requiring solar-ready roofs.

Require advanced metering for both energy and water in new buildings or major renovations.

Require buildings to report their performance over time. 

The topic is worth more than I can devote right now, but the governor's Zero Net Energy Task Force reports its recommendations this morning, one year to the day since Gov. Patrick announced his intention to form the group at last year's NESEA show.

I'm seated at the back of this year's show right now, as events get underway. I gather that it will be discussed at this plenary session this morning, but I got an embargoed copy of the report; here are the bare bones. The state should:

In the previous post, I alluded to US Rep. Jay Inslee, the Washington State Democrat with a very clear focus on energy issues. He said a bunch, both in his luncheon speech and in a generous discussion with journalists afterward. Some highlights:

Cap-and-trade legislation will pass this year. "I can't conceive of sending President Obama to Copenhagen empty-handed." "Coperhagen," of course, refers to the multilateral climate change conference scheduled for Dec. 7-18 in Denmark.

I spent part of today at the MIT Energy Conference, but before I get to any of that, I want to post on the three dozen hardy souls who turned out to protest at the Dominion power plant in Salem a week ago. I started to say "report on," but I don't have much more than photos to share...

Many readers know that my "other" issue is food addiction, driven by my experience of being above 300 pounds for most of the time between ages 16 and 33, topping out at 365 in 1991. I am as sure I'm an addict (now in recovery) as I am sure that I'm alive.

You may well believe that there is no such thing as food addiction, if you're in the mainstream.

Sometimes, in my efforts at persuasion, I ask those I'm speaking with to just pause and imagine if it were true, to just allow for the possibility, nd then to take in what the implications might be.

A large-scale act of civil disobedience is planned for Monday in Washington, at the site of the coal-fired plant that powers Capitol Hill, and like you, I'm not going to get there.

But my friend Maggie Zhou of the Secure Green Future movement tells me there will be protests at three Mass. coal-fired plants on Sunday, the day before.

Reuters reports...

I just got e-mail from the Prez asking me to party this weekend.

Actually, it's e-dressed to Georgie, but he really does want us to host an Economic Recovery House Meeting this weekend, to invite our friends and neighbors to watch a video and then discuss: 

Powerpastcoal.org is a new-to-me site focusing on organized efforts during the first 100 days of the Obama presidency to move the nation beyond coal dependence.

It is a clearinghouse where advocates can join an action, or start one with support from others engaged similarly. It is affiliated with 350.org.

To join one, you can enter a zip code and see what's happening in your region.