Harry Reid has had a disappointing week, to say the least. Lacking the votes to advance a comprehensive climate change bill, the Senate majority leader yesterday was forced to introduce a scaled-back bit of energy legislation. Reid did receive a consolation prize Wednesday, however, in the form of a missive from corporate America.
Signed by Sears, eBay, Gap, Starbucks, and Target, among others, the letter advocates energy-savings targets for individual utilities, a program more commonly called an Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS). The corporate leaders go on to say:
“The most affordable alternative to continued use of carbon-intensive fossil fuels is energy efficiency. Utilities could meet the standard by establishing efficiency programs for their residential, commercial and industrial customers – providing incentives to those who invest in high efficiency heating and air-conditioning systems, lighting, appliances, insulation, windows, whole building retrofits, industrial processes, combined heat and power systems, and other measures. We believe the standard should decrease usage by at least 1 percent per year in 2012, ramping up to higher savings levels by 2020.”
Utility programs with similar demands have been incredibly successful so far. According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Texas utilities provide a prime example of how well this type of legislation can function, as they were required to offset ten percent of their demand growth through energy efficiency as a part of utility restructuring. Impressively, they have not struggled to meet these targets.
Energy efficiency is often cited as the most cost-effective measure for decreasing fossil fuel consumption. The McKinsey Efficiency Study, summarized here, famously showed how carbon abatement through efficiency could be achieved at a profit. Programs like the one proposed here can make the up front investments required much more feasible.
At the end of the day, energy efficiency makes a boatload of sense: it’s easier and cheaper to save energy than it is to produce it. Nevertheless, it’s clear Reid and others — like renewable energy folks — remain hopeful the narrower energy provisions currently being considered in Washington are in future accompanied by broader revisions to America’s energy policy.
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