Obama Goal: Energy Efficiency For Millions Of Apartments They�re calling President Obama approach to governance these days �small ball� and they might be right � but there remains a lot an administration can do beyond grant Kennedyesque moonshot-style initiatives. Take the announcement today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about its new partnership with Freddie Mac the government-backed outfit that provides liquidity to a huge portion of the home loan market.What comes of this partnership remains to be seen but the goal is imminently sensible: to make apartments more energy efficient.EcoFlats is a green-focused apartment building in Portland Ore. (image © EarthTechling)According to the EPA around a third of Americans live in apartments in multifamily buildings and their energy bills add up to $22 billion a year.  This is a sector that doesn�t get a lot of attention when it comes to improving efficiency � often there little incentive for building owners to make such investments. But the possibilities are great the EPA says:�Housing industry studies have projected that multifamily properties can become 30 percent more efficient by 2020 unlocking $9 billion in energy savings and preventing more than 35 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.�EPA says the partnership with Freddie Mac flows from the president Climate Action Plan and the agency pointed to three ways apartment energy efficiency gains might be made:The EPA said it already been working with Fannie Mae and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on similar efforts and �this latest agreement with Freddie Mac is another critical step forward in meeting the President goal� of making multifamily buildings 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020.