The Real Estate Roundtable (RER) and industry partners voiced strong support for Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR program in a letter to Administrator Lee Zeldin this week—urging continued support for the voluntary, market-driven platform that underpins building efficiency, grid reliability, and energy cost savings. (Letter)

Why It Matters

• Commercial real estate relies more on ENERGY STAR than any other voluntary federal public-private partnership. It provides CRE’s standard tool to track and reduce building energy use—supporting lower utility bills, smart cap ex investments, and reduced regulatory red tape. (Letter)

• “Real estate assets that do more with less energy – as quantified, monetized, and recognized though Portfolio Manager and other ENERGY STAR offerings – are critical to achieve EPA’s pillars to “power the great American comeback,” the letter stated.

Facts and Stats

• More than 330,000 buildings—representing nearly 25% of U.S. commercial building floor space—utilized EPA’s Portfolio Manager software last year.

• ENERGY STAR-certified buildings achieve an average of 35% less energy usage compared to similar non-certified buildings.

• The program has saved businesses and families nearly $200 billion in utility bills since 1992, including $14 billion in 2024 alone.

Driving the Energy Comeback

The real estate industry letter how ENERGY STAR supports EPA goals to:

• Restore Energy Dominance and Competitiveness: Helps reduce operating costs, ease grid strain, and boost building global competitiveness.

• Support Cooperative Federalism: Serves as a unifying national platform across varied state and city energy rules.

• Lead in AI Innovation: Electricity savings supported by ENERGY STAR, combined with American-made energy of all types, are requisite to meet the massive demands for power we need to lead the world in AI innovation.

Energy Hearings on Capitol Hill

• Congressional committees held a series of energy-related hearings over the past two weeks, zeroing in on grid reliability, domestic supply, and the mounting electricity demands from artificial intelligence and data infrastructure.

• On April 2, a House oversight subcommittee held a hearing titled, “Unleashing the Golden Age of American Energy Dominance.” The hearing addressed the need to unlock “all of the above” U.S. energy resources to drive economic growth. (Press Release, April 2)

• Another House subcommittee dealing with energy policy held a hearing, “America’s AI Moonshot: The Economics of AI, Data Centers, and Power Consumption,” AI industry leaders and lawmakers discussed expediting energy permitting and power needed by data centers to support AI innovations. (PoliticoPro, April 2 | PoliticoPro, April 1)

• Last week, the CEOs of the nation’s grid operators in competitive electricity markets testified at a House Energy Subcommitee hearing, "Keeping the Lights On: Examining the State of Regional Grid Reliability." Witnesses explained that power demands are forecasted to exceed grid capacity and reinforced the need to reduce burdensome regulations to generate new power supplies. (Chairman Latta (R-OH) Statement, March 25)

RER remains committed to continued collaboration with EPA to advance the ENERGY STAR program as part of the administration’s 'all of the above' energy strategy, and goals to make the grid more resilient and reliable.