“Our analysis of the House-passed climate bill found that consumer bill savings from energy efficiency offset the costs to consumers of greenhouse gas emissions limits, making the overall package affordable to consumers,” stated Steven Nadel, Executive Director for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). “The Kerry-Lieberman proposal will result in only limited energy savings, and without these savings, costs to consumers will be higher.”

In addition to concerns about cuts to energy efficiency provisions, ACEEE also noted that by providing rebates to consumers through their energy bills, the Kerry-Lieberman proposal would also reduce the incentive for consumers to conserve energy on their own. “For the market for energy efficiency to work, consumers need to see the costs of inefficiency on their energy bills. While we support consumer rebates to offset costs, these rebates should be provided in other ways, rather than directly on energy bills,” noted Nadel.

In remarks leading up to today’s introduction, Senators Kerry and Lieberman have acknowledged the positive role energy efficiency can play, and have referred to the energy efficiency provisions in an energy bill reported out by the Senate Energy Committee. However, according to a previous analysis

by ACEEE, the majority of energy savings in the Senate Energy Committee bill requires funding that was expected to come from a climate bill, but such funding is missing from the Kerry-Lieberman bill.

“The bill does take important steps towards lowering transportation-sector emissions by requiring national goals for transportation reductions, as well as state and metro area targets. More federal dollars are available to help reach those targets than in previous bills, though acceptable uses for those funds could be better defined. In addition, the bill offers substantial assistance to auto manufacturers and suppliers for clean vehicle production, including plug-ins; unfortunately, vehicle efficiency performance requirements for this program are quite weak,” stated ACEEE Transportation Program Director Therese Langer.

The previous ACEEE analysis on the House-passed energy and climate bill concluded that the energy efficiency provisions in the bill would save the average American household about $200 annually by 2020. These consumer savings would exceed the non-efficiency costs per household of the legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated to be $175 in 2020. ACEEE also estimated the energy savings of the energy bill reported out by the Senate Energy Committee and found that this bill would save less than half the energy of the House-passed bill. Of the savings in the Senate Energy Committee bill, more than 60% of the savings are dependent on Congress providing funding for the provisions. Without this funding, savings from the Senate Energy Committee bill will be about one-quarter of the savings from the House-passed bill.

“We support the intent and efforts of Senators Kerry and Lieberman. However, in order to enact their proposal, they will need to make the case that it will not have adverse effects on consumers. Unfortunately, by gutting the energy efficiency provisions in their bill, they have created a huge impediment to make this case. They have pulled the plug on the most effective carbon-reduction strategy,” concluded Nadel. “We urge the Senate to build upon the meager energy efficiency provisions in the Kerry-Lieberman bill in order to reduce the costs to consumers of addressing climate change.”

• ACEEE’s analysis of ACES: http://www.aceee.org/energy/national/houseenergyandclimate.htm
• ACEEE’s analysis of ACELA (does not include amendment from 05/06/10): http://www.aceee.org/energy/national/senateenergy.htm

The CCI finds Germany, China, and the Republic of Korea to be outstanding examples of countries that have made significant improvements, while Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Japan, and France show the most consistent progress toward climate goals. The United States and the United Kingdom earn kudos for climate accountability, while Switzerland and Austria are strong on performance. But this is one index where no country has yet earned a perfect score. The UNEP and AccountAbility intend to update the new index annually. See the UNEP press release, the CCI Web site, an executive summary of the accompanying report (PDF 1.6 MB), and the full report (PDF 3.3 MB).

In addition, for the very largest home water heaters, the new efficiency standards will for the first time require advanced technologies (heat pumps for electrically-powered products and condensing technology for gas products), paving the way for even bigger future savings.

“From washing hands to hot showers to clean dishes, we all rely on water heaters for our daily needs,” said Steven Nadel, Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).”These new standards will deliver big national energy savings, reduce consumer energy bills, and cut pollution.”

According to DOE, for most product sizes sold, the new standards can be met with modest changes, such as adding more insulation to today’s conventional tank-style water heaters.For the most common size electric water heater (50 gallons), the standards will save 4 percent while for the most common size gas water heater (40 gallons), the new standards will save 3 percent.These per unit savings add up to big national impacts since more than nine million home water heaters are sold every year and water heating accounts for some 12 percent of the typical home’s energy use.

However, for the biggest products (those with over 55 gallons in storage capacity, which is about 9% and 4% of the electric and gas water heater markets, respectively), the new standards can only be met with heat pump and condensing technology.Heat pump electric water heaters save at least 50 percent and gas condensing water heaters save about 25 percent relative to today’s conventional storage water heaters.

“In the long run, a shift to electric heat pump and condensing gas water heaters is absolutely essential if we are to make deep cuts in household energy use and costs,” said Jeffrey Harris, Vice President, National Programs, of the Alliance to Save Energy. “DOE deserves tremendous credit for kick-starting this transition with its new standards.”

The new standards will save 2.6 quads of energy over 30 years or about enough energy to meet the total needs of about 13 million typical U.S. households for one year.Over the same period, consumers would save about $8.7 billion and carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by 154 million metric tons (an amount equal to the typical annual emissions of 30 million cars).

Based on DOE analyses, ACEEE estimates that a transition to electric heat pump and condensing gas products in all sizes and applications that make sense would save about 10 quads of energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 0.5 billion metric tons.

Last year, President Obama committed to accelerate DOE’s work to update many outmoded standards.These new standards are the latest in a series of more than 20 that must be completed during the current presidential term.

“Just a year into President Obama’s administration, DOE has made remarkable progress to update appliance standards,” said Andrew deLaski, Executive Director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP). “DOE’s new standards prove again that the cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy we save.”

Condensing and heat pump technologies are common in space heating but have only a toehold so far in the water heater market.More than 40 percent of U.S. furnace sales are of condensing products, and about 8 percent of U.S. homes are warmed with heat pumps.Several major water heater companies have brought these technologies to the water heater market and other major manufacturers are working to develop and introduce competing products.

“The Obama Administration has demonstrated again its strong commitment to an energy-efficient future with these standards.These standards are a big step toward improving the efficiency of U.S. homes,” said Tim Ballo, Associate Attorney for Earthjustice. “We are encouraged to see the Obama Administration make the right choice and give energy efficiency the boost that it deserves. We hope this decision signals the Administration’s future choices on energy efficiency standards, which have the ability to put money back in the American people’s pockets, spur innovation, create jobs, and lift our economy, while at the same time reducing harmful air pollution from power plants.”

A broad coalition of consumer, energy efficiency, and environmental groups as well as utilities, state officials, and more than 17,000 individuals wrote DOE urging adoption of the standards announced today.

Today’s final rule also updates minimum standards for less common products such as tankless water heaters (also known as instantaneous water heaters), pool heaters, and direct heating equipment, a type of space heater.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, energy consulting and third-party verification services.  In addition, Populus provides consulting and training to municipalities to aid in the aid in the implementation of residential programs and energy codes.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, energy consulting and third-party verification services.  In addition, Populus provides consulting and training to municipalities to aid in the aid in the implementation of residential programs and energy codes.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” said Seattle City Council Chair Richard Conlin. “Energy disclosure is a key first step to tap into the gold mine of opportunities to save energy and money while improving the City’s existing building stock. I’d like to thank all the members of the Green Building Task Force and other stakeholders who helped create this new ordinance that will save energy and create new jobs in Seattle.”

You can read more about the new Energy Disclosure Ordinance here.

Watch the full presentation on the Environmental Resource Center’s website: Creating a Green Building Program.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, LEED for Homes Green Rater services and municipal energy code consulting.  In addition, Populus offers an Energy Code Workshop for architects and municipalities, as well as LEED for Homes training.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.

Making the Business Case: Sustainability Enhances Profit
“Profitability is the most successful point of entry”

L. Hunter Lovins
Sociologist, Attorney, International Business Sustainability Expert

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
St. John’s Episcopal Church
1419 Pine Street, Boulder, CO 80302

Time: 6:30-7:00 Social Hour
7:00-8:30pm Presentation

Clean Energy Action is proud to present internationally renowned sustainability pioneer Hunter Lovins. She willl explain how companies will do the right thing by the climate as they know how they can profit by doing so, with examples of sustainable companies outperforming competitors. Business winners will be those organizations prepared to “rigorously exploit” the global drivers of change — the climate crisis, volatile energy prices, economic and ecosystem collapse — by responding with energy efficiency, renewable energy and resource productivity. Lovins will describe innovative, practical tools and strategies that communities and companies are implementing to cut costs and drive innovation.

About the speaker

President and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, Hunter Lovins was called the “green business icon” by Newsweek and “Hero of the Planet” by Time. The European financial community awarded her the 2008 Sustainability Pioneer for her 30 years of framing the business case for sustainability. A founding professor at Presidio Graduate School, Lovins has authored numerous papers and books, including the landmark work, Natural Capitalism. Ms. Lovins advises clients such as Wal-Mart, the United Nations, Royal Dutch/Shell, the International Finance Corporation, and the Afghanistan government.

For more information, contact Andy Lenec or visit
www.cleanenergyaction.org
Copyright© 2009 Clean Energy Action

Thursday, January 14, 2010

New one-time location!
Unity Church
2855 Folsom Street, Boulder, CO 80304

Time: 6:30-7:00 Social Hour
7:00-8:30pm Presentation

This presentation is a unique and timely opportunity to learn about the process and options that cities face when negotiating with large-scale energy providers. With franchise renewal set for summer of 2010, Boulder is in the process of negotiating an energy supply commitment with Xcel Energy. Come and become informed about how cities do long-term energy planning, about the time commitment considerations for Boulder’s next franchise agreement, and about options for choice in Boulder’s energy sources. Ms. Perkins will focus on the inherent responsibility of Colorado cities to provide energy as a vital service and to respond to the moral, financial and social imperatives associated with carbon emissions.

About the speaker

Susan Perkins has spent 34 years as an energy lawyer with an exclusive focus for four years on sustainable and renewable energy. Representing distributed solar and utility-scale solar and wind clients, participating in energy policy dockets at the Public Utilities Commission, and representing cities in the negotiation of their franchise agreements, Ms. Perkins is a strong advocate for systemic thinking and long-range planning for energy policy.

ATTORNEYS PLEASE NOTE: An application will be filed at the Colorado Supreme Court for 1.0 hour of Continuing Legal Education Credit (CLE) for this program.

For more information, contact Andy Lenec or visit
www.cleanenergyaction.org
Copyright© 2009 Clean Energy Action

If you’re looking for an informative breakdown of the proposed legislation, including a general overview of how the proposed cap and trade regulatory scheme would operate, check out this helpful Faegre & Benson Climate Change Law Update webcast.  The webcast contains four parts, addressing federal legislative proposals, carbon offsets, federal regulation and case law, and regional and international programs.

Want to learn more? See the White House press release and a transcript of  the president’s remarks.

Populus is a full service sustainable design consulting firm that focuses on high performance, net-zero and near-net-zero custom residential and multi-family projects.  Populus guides architects and builders through the requirements of mandatory green building codes and optional green home certification programs, providing HERS rating, LEED for Homes Green Rater services and municipal energy code consulting.  In addition, Populus offers an Energy Code Workshop for architects and municipalities, as well as LEED for Homes training.  Visit Populus at www.popboulder.com.