Breakdown of Predicted Fines
The City of Chicago energy benchmarking ordinance stipulates fines for non compliance, which top out at $9,200 per year. As we reported in our Feb 2024 article about missed fines, these fines have never been levied, and to our knowledge, as of October 2025, they still have not been.
This page totals the predicted fines the city could have collected from buildings they know are not in compliance, assuming that these buildings would not come into compliance after initial fines and would hit the annual maximum fine.
| Year | Predicted Fines |
|---|---|
| 2018 | $3,864,000 |
| 2019 | $9,936,000 |
| 2020 | $4,462,000 |
| 2021 | $5,593,600 |
| 2022 | $6,734,400 |
| 2023 | $4,986,400 |
| total | $35,576,400 |
To maintain accuracy, predictions are based off of simply counting the buildings marked "Not Submitted" and multiplying by the maximum annual fine. This does not account for buildings we believe did not submit full data (like if they are missing an emissions total or emissions intensity), if the city officially marks those buildings as having submitted and thus in compliance.