Dive Brief:

• Professionals who design buildings say they are well ahead of federal goals for energy efficiency to cut fossil-fuel use, and many have united to fight an effort to kill the goals.
• The American Institute of Architects is taking the point position for the group, which includes hundreds of businesses, and it sent a letter to Congress telling members to keep the goals, laid out in Section 433 of the Energy Independence and Security Act.
• The companies say the fossil-fuel industries are pushing for the repeal as part of a bipartisan energy-efficiency bill that Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, crafted over a two-year-period.

Dive Insight:

AIA sent the letter Feb. 27, saying "nearly 1,000 businesses from across the country" endorsed the fight against repeal. It says that design and construction companies are already ahead of the curve laid out in the current law.