DOE Package Letter Establishments

This establishment has been selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical agency within the Department of Energy, is responsible for the administration of the CBECS and the dissemination of its data.

Through CBECS, EIA provides the only comprehensive source of energy-related information for U.S. commercial buildings. People use CBECS for many useful purposes, including:

• Building owners and managers, to compare their own energy-related information with other similar buildings through benchmarking tools like Energy Star;

• Energy modelers and forecasters, to assess current energy use and to forecast future energy patterns; and,

• Agencies of the federal government, including Congress, as well as State and local governments, to formulate energy policies.

The CBECS brochure and other information in this package provide more background facts about the survey and give specific examples of how the collected information is used and who uses it.

Be assured that every piece of information we collect about this establishment will be kept strictly confidential. Your information will be combined with data from other establishments and released to the public in a statistical, summary format.

This establishment was scientifically selected to represent many other similar businesses. Consequently, your participation is essential. If you agree to participate you will be asked about the kinds of energy this establishment uses, how it is used, how much it costs, and other questions related to energy use in this establishment.

If you have any questions, please call Lillian Diaz-Hoffmann, Westat’s Director of Survey Operations, at

(888) 528-3906 or e-mail her at lilliandiaz-hoffmann@westat.com. To speak directly with someone at the U.S. Department of Energy, please call Joelle Michaels, the CBECS Survey Manager, at (202) 586-8952 or email her at Joelle.Michaels@eia.gov. Information collected from previous CBECS surveys is also available on the internet by visiting http://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial.

We look forward to working with you, and we thank you for participating in this important national energy survey.

Sincerely,

T
homas Leckey

Director, Office of Energy Consumption and Efficiency Statistics

Energy Information Administration

U.S. Department of Energy

Authorizing Legislation:

Respondent Confidentiality:

This survey will be conducted under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) of 2002 (P.L. 107-347). Data collected under the provisions of this legislation are required to be kept confidential and to be used only for statistical purposes (i.e., characterizations for population subgroups that do not reveal any information that could identify individual responses). The Energy Information Administration, as the sponsoring organization for the CBECS, is responsible for assuring that all identifying information such as respondent names and addresses and/or building names and addresses are kept confidential and cannot be linked to the data collected in the CBECS.

Public Reporting Burden:

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average between 25 and 45 minutes per questionnaire, including the time for searching existing data records, filling out the worksheets, and completing the interview. Send comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to:

U.S. Energy Information Administration

Office of Statistical Development and Survey Integration

Survey Development Team (EI-21)

1000 Independence Ave, SW

Washington, D.C. 20585

and

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

Washington, D.C. 20503