During the past several years, Washington has engaged in a number of efforts to improve energy efficiency with the goal of reducing costs and emissions of greenhouse gases. There have been, primarily, two types of efforts: performance-based contracting and promotion of “green” building standards. Both of these policies have been in place for a few years and data are available to assess their performance. Examining the data from these efforts, we find that the results are mixed at best, with a number of investments that are unlikely ever to pay off.

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