Rebuilding After the Gulf Coast Hurricanes: Energy Efficiency Opportunities and Challenges

Lisa Surprenant, Jeanne Townend, Dean Gamble, and Brian Dean, ICF International

Keywords

Abstract

On August 29, 2005, a Category 4 hurricane made landfall near Buras, Louisiana, bringing 145 mph winds, inundating New Orleans and creating a path of destruction the size of the United Kingdom. In four short hours, a city fondly dubbed “the Big Easy” became a site of vast difficulty as the tragedy compounded. An estimated 310,353 new single-family homes will need to be built in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama during coming months. Six of those homes are being piloted in Pass Christian, Mississippi.

This paper proposes energy efficiency as the minimum requirement for all new residential housing in the Gulf Coast region, makes the financial case for doing so, and presents a snapshot of reconstruction using “smart energy choices” in one current pilot program.

Recent changes in building policies (2005 Energy Policy Act, upgraded IECC 2006 codes, and 2006 Energy Star® for New Homes Guidelines) were modeled for funding leverage and potential for residential energy efficiency mass deployment. Supported by DOE-2 modeling analyses, this research compares the consequences of rebuilding baseline (inefficient) homes to other energy-efficient scenarios in both “theoretical” and “real world” situations.

The paper concludes with recommendations for energy efficient rebuilding in the Gulf Coast region.