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Each year, energy expenses incurred through operating grants to public housing authorities, utility allowances to renters, and housing assistance payments to building owners cost HUD approximately $4 billion — more than 10 percent of our budget. In 2001, then-Deputy Secretary Alphonso Jackson convened a department-wide Energy Task Force to identify measures and establish goals for reducing HUD energy expenditures and supporting the President's National Energy Policy. This year, in August, HUD submitted a Report to Congress as required under Section 154 of the Energy Policy Act, that describes the progress it has made in implementing the Energy Action Plan, and identifies an energy strategy for the next two years. The Act requires HUD to develop an integrated energy strategy for public and assisted housing that includes establishing energy reduction goals and incentives for public housing agencies, and reporting on our progress in two years' time. The Energy Action Plan proposed 21 action items in the following 6 categories:

HUD's Energy Action Plan is reducing energy costs as it promotes energy efficiency.

• Establishing new partnerships with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to distribute Energy Star® information to HUD customers and to initiate HUD-DOE multifamily weatherization projects in at least five states.
  
  
• Providing information, training, and technical assistance to encourage the adoption of energy-efficient appliances, fixtures, and housing.



• Strengthening energy program rewards and incentives, including promoting the use of Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEMs) and awarding priority rating points for energy-efficient housing in HUD's competitive grant programs.



• Strengthening standards and compliance with program requirements by encouraging the use of Energy Star-rated equipment.



• Improving management of HUD's energy programs by assigning department-wide responsibility for coordinating HUD's energy program, and enhancing the tracking and monitoring of energy conservation in public and assisted housing.
  
  
• Supporting further research and technology development by conducting energy-related analysis and research, testing innovative housing technologies, and developing integrated approaches to energy efficiency.

The two-year energy strategy for public and assisted housing described in the Report to Congress continues many of these actions, but also identifies several new measures, including an enhanced strategy for multifamily housing, as well as sections on Indian and manufactured housing. In transmitting the report, the Secretary committed HUD to implementing the actions and noted that "With the continuing upward trend in oil prices, the Department is especially concerned with the impact of utility costs on affordable housing."

Energy-efficient building technologies are proving to be cost- effective during both construction and occupancy.

This Energy Action Plan, funded through existing allocations and executed in collaboration with other agencies, could help HUD achieve significant savings for the federal government, property owners, and residents of HUD-insured and -assisted housing. Reducing the Department's energy bill by just 5 percent could save taxpayers $2 billion over the next 10 years.

Cities, states, and counties, as well as housing authorities and other nonprofit organizations, can benefit from incorporating elements of HUD's Energy Action Plan into new and existing developments. A growing number of communities receiving formula grants from HUD (CDBG or HOME) are establishing Energy Star guidelines for new construction — 2,700 units are underway in New England alone.

One of the Plan's measures ensures that nonprofit and faith-based organizations have access to information about energy-efficient technologies, as well as opportunities to participate in HUD-sponsored training and technical assistance. Two organizations that benefited from this new focus were the Telamon Corporation in Leedstown, Virginia, and the Wytheville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (WRHA) in Wytheville, Virginia.

Working with nonprofit and faith-based organizations to develop and manage affordable housing is one way that HUD is meeting the objectives of the Energy Action Plan. In Leedstown, Virginia, HUD is helping a farm worker advocacy group build houses for seasonal workers using straw-bale technology. With funding from HUD's Office of Rural Housing and Economic Development and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, the private, nonprofit Telamon Corporation built four houses that use straw bale as an energy-efficient and low-cost alternative to traditional wood frame or concrete block construction.

The homes cost approximately $85 per square foot, or roughly $10 less than the national average, according to Greg Miller, a Telamon architect. The homes would have cost even less had they not been custom designed to include passive solar heating, adds Miller. In addition to the reduced building costs, residents will benefit from lower heating and cooling costs. The 150 straw bales used for each house are roughly 3 feet long by 18 inches wide and are stacked to make walls that are 14½ inches thick. "The bales have an insulating factor of R38, or twice what you achieve if you insulated 2 by 6 inch framed walls and even more than the standard 2 by 4 inch framing,"; says Miller.

An artist's rendering depicts the straw bale housing constructed by the Telamon Corporation in Leedsville, Virginia, to house seasonal workers.

In exchange for the federal grant, the farms and Telamon agreed to make the straw bale housing available for seasonal and migrant workers for the next 20 years. According to Council Secretary Sam Johnson, for years, the Rappahannock Migrant and Seasonal Workers Council tried to improve housing for workers in Westmoreland County, Virginia. In tandem with the use of efficient technologies, this new relationship is getting safe, decent, and affordable housing built for area workers.