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+
+ City Of Chicago Failed to Collect $30 Million In Potential Fines from Building Benchmarking
+ Ordinance
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+ Not Enforcing The Benchmarking Ordinance's Fines From 2018 - 2022 Reduced Accountability &
+ Transparency
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+ Electrify Chicago has analyzed the last five years of city benchmark data, and found
+ 3,325 instances of building owners not submitting data. Based on the
+
+ latest (2024) official notification letter
+ fines for non-compliance could total up to $9,200 per year.
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+ A screenshot of the energy benchmarking notification letter's section on fines, as of
+ Feb. 2024 (source )
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+ With a maximum of $9,200 of fines multiplied by 3,325 instances of non-compliance
+ (source - City of Chicago data portal ), that
+ means a whopping $30,590,000 dollars of fines could have been collected
+ by the city's commissioner of business affairs and consumer protection (who is given this
+ responsibility in the
+ original ordinance).
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+ The full data portal screenshot, and a zoomed in view of the query result count (source )
+
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+ Through a FOIA request, the city reported that they had no recorded instances of
+ enforcement. We believe it's extremely unlikely the city levied and then collected fines
+ without any record, and thus believe that no fines were levied in this time.
+
+
+
Why This Matters
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+
+ Without consequences for non-reporting, building owners who perform poorly can simply opt
+ out of reporting their data. Some owners of very large and culturally significant buildings
+ have consistently not submitted. As an example, view
+
+ 2023's largest non reporting buildings in the data portal
+ . Not having all building owners report means the goals of the ordinance aren't being
+ met, and the public loses out on valuable information for buildings that could be emitting
+ the most or be the least efficient.
+
+
+
Next Steps
+
+
+ An older version of the energy benchmarking notification (source - WayBackMachine )
+ did not contain any information of potential fines, and just this recent update to make
+ sure building owners are aware of the consequences for not reporting should improve
+ reporting. However we believe it is crucial the city then follow through and fine any
+ owners who choose to ignore repeated requests to report their energy use, in keeping
+ with the original ordinance. We also believe that larger fines may be necessary to get the
+ owners of very large and inefficient buildings to report their emissions, who may want to
+ obscure their pollution from the public.
+
+
+
+
Questions?
+
+
+ Contact the lead developer on this site, Viktor Kรถves, by emailing
+ contact@viktorkoves.com
+
+
+