by Jbs031509 b3 — March 20, 2009—A broad coalition of business, professional, energy, and environmental organizations recently released recommendations on the role of energy efficiency in federal climate change legislation.
“Including energy efficiency in a cap-and-trade bill is essential because energy efficiency provides ‘avoided tons’ of greenhouse gases at the lowest cost,” stated Steven Nadel, the coalition’s coordinator and also the Executive Director of the ACEEE. “Energy efficiency,” he continued, “reduces the cost of cap-and-trade because fewer new power-producing facilities are needed and because a smaller portion of existing facilities need to be upgraded to help meet emissions ceilings.”
Currently, the US does not have a federal greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction requirement, although, in recent years, various bills have been proposed to require such reductions, notes ACEEE. Both the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Environment and Public Works Committees are poised to revisit cap-and-trade legislation this session.
Under cap-and-trade, the market would establish a price for greenhouse gas emissions allowances. The price of these credits will modestly add to energy prices, says ACEEE.
In addition to ACEEE, the other participants in the coalition are the American Institute of Architects, Alliance to Save Energy (ASE), Environmental and Energy Study Institute, Environment Northeast, Johnson Controls, Inc., National Association of Energy Service Companies, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Real Estate Roundtable.
In order to spur efficiency investments under climate legislation, the coalition recommends two main approaches: providing funding for energy efficiency using revenue from carbon credits and adopting a set of complementary policies in an energy efficiency title to the legislation.
Reducing the Cost of Addressing Climate Change Through Energy Efficiency is available from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
