Philadelphia to Force Large Property Owners to Post Energy Use

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

June 22, 2012 | 4:33 PM

Tom Mihalek / AFP/Getty Images

Workers pull audio video cables with the Philadelphia skyline in the background.

Philadelphia City Council followed in the footsteps of cities like Washington D.C., New York City and San Francisco on Thursday when it passed “energy benchmarking” legislation. The measure requires commercial building owners with more than 50,000 square feet to record their yearly water and energy usage in a publicly accessible database.
Think of it as peer pressure to reduce energy consumption. Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown introduced the legislation and describes the bill’s purpose in a release.

“Property owners will find out how their buildings stack up to comparable buildings providing the tools necessary to formulate best practices and discover savings.”

Companies who fail to post their usage could face fines of $100 a day.