The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in response to the Obama Administration’s newly announced “Better Buildings Initiative”:

“The President’s new effort to encourage energy efficiency upgrades for the nation’s commercial building inventory will make our economy more efficient, more vibrant and more competitive. Given the fact that the energy consumed by the nation’s building inventory accounts for 40 percent of domestic power consumption, encouraging efficiency upgrades will do much more to safeguard our environment and reduce power consumption than any current ’cap and trade’ proposal ever would. And unlike restrictive environmental legislation or regulatory actions, the President’s new proposal will actually stimulate new economic activity and create needed jobs for a construction sector that has seen unemployment rates above 20 percent for much of the past year.

“[The President’s] announcement reflects the type of pragmatic and productive energy and efficiency upgrades the Associated General Contractors of America first outlined in its Building a Green Future plan. Hopefully it also reflects a shift for this administration away from pushing regulatory and legislative environmental measures that undermine economic activity towards enacting measures that safeguard our environment while advancing economic growth.”

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