Better Efficiency Standards Would Save Billions For U.S. Consumers

If Congress passes climate and energy legislation that strengthens energy efficiency and renewable energy standards, Americans may see electric and natural gas costs fall by $113 billion by 2030.  In addition, emitters would pay 4 percent less in compliance costs to meet potential requirements under a cap-and-trade scheme, according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The new analysis follows a study by U.S. Energy Information Administration in August 2009 related to the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a comprehensive climate and energy bill passed in June 2009 by the U.S. House of Representatives.  In addition to a national cap on carbon emissions, ACES includes a combined energy efficiency and renewable electricity standard (RES) requiring large electric utilities to increase their use of efficiency and renewable energy to a nominal target of 20 percent by 2025. While the EIA study showed that ACES is both achievable and affordable, it also found that the RES embedded in the bill does not contribute to any substantial growth of renewable energy because of loopholes that erode the required electricity generation to levels below the EIA’s “Business as Usual” projections.  The analysis also found that stronger renewable energy and efficiency policies would avoid the need for nearly 50 new nuclear reactors and diversify the nation’s energy mix more quickly than the current bill would.