Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 12; Title 13 and Title 68.

Present law generally encourages the state building commission to adopt standards to ensure that all state buildings perform in an energy efficient manner. This bill requires that public contracts require that at least one party involved in the building delivery system (meaning a party involved in building design, engineering and construction services, or materials and equipment) of a project for which a contract is being entered into warrant that the annual energy use of all habitable conditioned space within a newly constructed building or substantially renovated building will meet a predetermined energy use objective set by the public agency involved in the contract. Under this bill, an energy use objective for new construction must be 30 percent lower than the average energy use for similar buildings. This bill requires that at least one party involved in the building delivery system provide a three-year, or longer, warranty that the energy use objective will be achieved. If the energy use objective is not met, then the party providing the warranty is required to reimburse the public agency for 75 percent of the cost difference of the measured energy use and the energy use objective. If the energy use objective is met, this bill requires the public agency to reimburse the party providing the warranty at the rate of 27 cents per square foot of conditioned space for the three years of the warranty coverage. If the energy use is less than the energy use objective, then the reimbursement rate will be 25 cents per thousand BTU per square foot of conditioned space per year. If the energy use objectives are not met, there will not be any reimbursement. If a public agency is unable to find a party that will warrant the building's energy use objective, then the public agency is only required to set a predetermined energy use objective. Following the occupancy of a building to which this bill applies, the public agency is required to designate an independent auditor to annually conduct a measurement and verification audit of measured energy use for the duration of each individual contract. The full text of this bill specifies the contents of the audit and parties to whom the audit must be provided.