The Sacramento Municipal Utility District rolled out a new energy efficiency rebate and financing program for owners of apartment buildings, condominiums, and other multi-family buildings. SMUD promises to provide rebates to install energy efficient lighting, heating, room air conditioners, water heaters, and appliances in multi-family buildings up to 12 months after purchase. Building owners can also receive financing from SMUD for high efficiency water heaters, windows, insulation, and to plant shade trees around their buildings. The program kicked off August 1 is estimated to produce 0.4 gigawatt/hours of saved energy and 0.4 (n)MW (negawatts) this year through retrofits on 20 complexes of various sizes, said Misha Sarkovich, SMUD program manager. Next year, 109 complexes are targeted for efficiency upgrades, which are expected to save gW/h and 0.84 (n)MW. “We’re going to building owners and apartment managers and offering it as a package for their buildings,” SMUD General Manager Don DiStasio told the board of directors August 21. The muni said it is working with Sacramento County, local building owners associations, and other groups to market “green apartments” similar to smoke-free dwellings, said Paul Lowe, the muni’s director of customer services. “They believe it’s going to be a good marketing tool” for renters to reduce their energy bills, he said. In other business, SMUD’s board of directors voted to oppose Proposition 10, the California Renewable Energy and Clean Alternative Fuel Act, on the November ballot. This measure would authorize the state to sell $5 billion in general obligation bonds--$9.8 billion with interest--for rebates to buyers of hybrids and other “clean alternative vehicles,” and fund research into alternative fuels. SMUD director Bill Slaton criticized Proposition 10 for lumping together ratepayers of municipal utilities, like SMUD, and investor-owned utilities, which can establish rebate programs through the California Public Utilities Commission. The measure is “inflexible,” Slaton said. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups oppose Proposition 10 because it promotes natural gas, other fossil fuels, and hydro power from large dams as clean fuel sources. Proposition 10’s chief promoter is Texas energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, who has conducted television ads for the initiative. Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels Corporation, formerly known as Pickens Fuel and the nation’s largest provider of natural gas for transportation, has pumped $3.2 million into the Proposition 10 campaign.
