The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers sent a letter to Congress urging it not to cease funding the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers are dismayed at a government decision to halt an energy survey.

ASHRAE sent a letter to Congress urging it not to cease funding the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey, which contains information compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It has already decided not to release results of the 2007 survey, ASHRAE said, and has stopped working on the 2011 edition.

“Information from CBECS plays a critical role in building energy efficiency through the many federal and private sector programs that use the Survey’s data in their efforts to establish benchmark levels and promote energy efficient practices, including ASHRAE’s Building Energy Quotient program,” said society President Lynn G. Bellenger, P.E. “Additionally, many of ASHRAE's committees depend upon CBECS to help develop some of the standards in use by the federal government, states and local jurisdictions.”

The last completed survey is from 2003.