Hi Christian, thanks for your question regarding the "Building Star" bill. Building Star is a bill that was introduced to the Senate (S.3079) by Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon in early March 2010. The purpose of the bill is to "To assist in the creation of new jobs by providing financial incentives for owners of commercial buildings and multifamily residential buildings to retrofit their buildings with energy efficient building equipment and materials, and for other purposes."

The Bill calls for $6 billion in tax incentives and tax credits over two years to cover about 30 percent the cost of energy efficient products and services for commercial and multifamily buildings.

The Building Star bill is similar to the Home Star bill, also known as "Cash for Caulkers," only for commercial buildings.

The rebates are structured as follows: (from http://www.greenbuildinglawblog.com/2010/03/articles/incentives/does-bui...)

* For energy audits and commissioning studies--$.05 per square foot of audited or commissioned space or 50% of the cost of the audit or commissioning study.
* For energy efficient building operations and maintenance training--$2000 per individual trained and certified
* For service on space heating equipment--$100 per unit serviced
* For service on cooling systems--$2 per ton of nameplate capacity of the serviced cooling system and 50% of the total service cost
* For installation of qualified energy monitoring and management systems--the lesser of $.45 per square foot of building space covered by the system or 50% of total installation and commissioning costs
* For upgrades of qualified energy monitoring and management systems--the lesser of $.15 per square foot of building space covered by the system or 50% of total installation and commissioning costs
* For HVAC testing, balancing and duct sealing--$.75 per square foot of duct surface tested, balanced and if necessary, sealed

The federal incentive that you mention of $1.80/SF for "green building investments" refers to the provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which allowed for a tax deduction of $1.80/SF for investments in "energy-efficient commercial building property" designed to significantly reduce the heating, cooling, water heating, and interior lighting energy cost of new or existing commercial buildings." There were several requirements in order to qualify for this tax deduction.

To my knowledge, S.3079 (Building Star) makes no such provision to increase this tax deduction to $3.00/SF.

To read the bill for yourself, go to http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/files/webfmuploads/Building%20STAR%...

For more information on Building Star in general, go to www.RebuildingAmerica.org

Hope this helps!

Dave