Leaders from Puget Sound environment and conservation businesses met to hear about the Department of Energy’s priorities in the effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Seattle City Light hosted a business roundtable Monday afternoon with the assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs for the Department of Energy, Alice Madden. She explained that the federal administration’s year 2020 goal is to work with local governments and businesses to decrease national greenhouse-gas emissions by 17 percent below the 2005 levels.
One big effort the DOE is taking on, according to Madden, is the bulk purchase of LED lights with the goal of driving down the price to customers. Another is providing the vast array of knowledge within the Department of Energy to state and local governments. Madden admitted that in the past, this type of assistance wasn’t easily accessed by these groups.
Businesses leaders offered some ideas on ways of cutting some of the red tape in obtaining grants and loans for both commercial and residential conservation construction.