Washington DC enacted a 2008 law which is now in effect as of January 1 called the “Clean and Affordable Energy Act”. It is designed to motivate property owners to adopt energy-efficient technologies by making their monthly power bills a matter of public record. Beginning this month, property managers who oversee buildings with more than 200,000 square feet of office space are required by law to record energy and water usage rates on a Web site run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In 2008, New York City was trying to pass a similar law for buildings over 50,000 square feet as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC.

I expect that these types of legislation will continue to pop up as energy efficiency efforts become more and more mainstream.