White House Honors Federal Agency Teams For Saving Energy and Reducing Energy Costs

October 18, 2001

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October 18, 2001

WASHINGTON, DC -- Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham today honored four federal agency energy management teams and more than 40 federal employee participants of those teams for their dedication, leadership, and efforts towards promoting and improving federal energy. management. These teams are responsible for projects that will result in millions of dollars in energy cost savings.

"Federal employees are being honored today for coming up with innovative ways to save energy that will save millions of dollars this year alone," said Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. "Reducing demand on conventional energy sources and saving precious environmental resources as a result are key components of President Bush's National Energy Policy."

Vice President Cheney presented today's awards on behalf of President George W. Bush. The Office of Management and Budget co-hosted the event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House. Winners at this second annual ceremony included representatives from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United States Postal Service (USPS), and two winners from the Department of Defense, the Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy. The Presidential Awards for Federal Energy Management were established by Executive Order 13123 on Efficient Energy Management.

The award-winning projects are:

• NASA's Energy Team. A well-integrated group that formed a corporate Energy Efficiency Board to provide an agency-level forum to guide the planning and implementation of energy efficiency activities. The team successfully negotiated five Energy Savings Performance Contracts and one Utility Energy Savings Contract resulting in improvements that will save eight million gallons of water annually and will remove thousands of PCB-using lighting ballasts. Additionally, the agency has used wind, solar, geothermal and landfill gas energy sources in innovative and cost-effective applications. One windmill project will recover its costs in nine years. Landfill gas recovery will help the agency save $330,000 annually in energy costs.
• The U. S. Postal Service's Southeast Area "Stamp Out Energy Waste" Program. This program's goal is to have at least half of the southeast area of the United States' Postal Service employees sign an energy conservation pledge card within a year. The pledge card commits employees to be good stewards by taking basic energy-conserving actions (for example, turning off lights and computers when not in use). The Area's Energy Steering Committee produced and implemented a Strategic Energy Management Plan that embraces many of the tools of Executive Order 13123. The results show that the area's successful use of these tools has saved significant amounts of both energy and financial resources. The USPS also utilized the expertise of DOE's SAVEnergy program and the Florida Energy Office to identify energy conservation measures yielding cost savings of more than $18,000 per year for an investment of $106,000. The SAVEnergy Program provides direct assistance to federal agencies in identifying and implementing energy efficiency and water conservation measures to meet requirements of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct) and Executive Order 13123 (EO 13123).
• The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni, Japan, Comprehensive Energy Management Program. The air station formed an Energy Conservation Planning Group chaired by the Executive Officer of the Station, and a group of energy monitors were put into place throughout the air station. Their accomplishments include negotiating a new billing rate structure which resulted in savings of $1.5 million annually in electricity charges and more than 50 billion British Thermal Unit (Btus), which is equivalent to the amount of energy used per year in 500 typical households. The energy team also determined a way to cycle waste steam in buildings throughout the station in the heating season to dramatically reduce boiler loads that saves approximately $340,000 per year in fuel costs. Nighttime inspections to identify unneeded street and parking lot lights were performed and more than 40 unnecessary lights were found. Discontinuing use of these lights secured savings of about $6,000 per year in electricity costs.
• The Department of the Navy--Southwest Region Regional Energy Program Office. This office was formed in response to spiraling electricity prices and electricity shortages in Southern California. The demand-side management initiatives spearheaded by the office helped the local utility avert Stage 3 alerts and regional rolling outages. A 21.6 kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system is being constructed in partnership with the local utility, the state of California and private sector companies. The system will produce 39,420 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually, which is the amount of energy one person uses in six months. More importantly, it will cut demand by more than 20-kW during mid-afternoon when the local utility grid is struggling with peak usage. An additional benefit of the PV system is reduced emissions, which over its 20-year life will include 1,111,644 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO₂), 9,461 pounds of sulfer dioxide (SO₂), and 3,942 pounds of nitrous oxide (NOx).

The Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program recommended the award recipients to the President of the United States, who made the final decision on these awards.

The Presidential Awards for Federal Energy Management support President Bush's National Energy Policy (NEP) which calls for America to modernize conservation efforts, increase energy supplies, accelerate the protection and improvement of the environment and increase our nation's energy security. The NEP directs executive departments and agencies to conserve energy use at facilities.

Release No. R-01-179