Thursday, May 27, 2010

A green cure for the blues

By Stephen L. Cowell

Guest Blogger*

May 27, 2010

Now that it has passed the House of Representatives with flying colors (246 to 161), we are this close to making Home Star a reality. This is the plan, supported on both sides of the aisle, which would give U.S. homeowners rebates for energy efficiency improvements and cut energy consumption. Most importantly, Home Star will put many of the country’s construction folks and blue-collar wage earners back to work, so let’s get it passed in the Senate and on President Obama’s desk already!

The bill has unique bi-partisan support and is backed by one of the largest coalitions to hit Washington in years. In just a few months, the Home Star Coalition has signed more than 1,300 members. Supporters come from labor unions, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, contractors, retailers, utilities and regulators, to name a few groups. We’re gaining more ground every day and the time is right for Congress to make it into law. But first a little history:

Home Star was introduced to The White House in November 2009. The concept was so well received, the proposal was unanimously voted for by the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board the following month. Since then, this plan to weatherize America’s homes has undergone much review and analysis by a coalition of more than 1,000 stakeholders, the Senate, the House and the Administration. Its pros and cons have been analyzed, dissected and debated on blogs, TV and in mainstream newspapers for months now. It is time to move past the talk and get to the action. Home Star will put hundreds of thousands of people back to work and provide economic recovery to a large number of blue-collar workers hit hardest by this recession.

The disparity between blue- and white-collar workers who have been affected by the economy is striking – one in five workers in blue-collar industries across America is jobless. On the other hand, those making $150,000 a year or more are barely impacted. (Three percent are unemployed as of this writing.) These are the findings of a study** authored by Professor Andrew Sum, Northeastern University’s director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. In a radio interview earlier this year, he said, “It’s The Great Depression for blue collar workers – with dire implications for society…this rate of joblessness is greater than any post war time period in history.”

Home Star will benefit unemployed blue-collar laborers and experienced workers who have lost jobs in construction and manufacturing because their skills can be easily adapted. Beyond retrofitting, Home Star will have a ripple effect creating jobs in other areas such as retailing, trucking and manufacturing. In fact, US factories will crank out 92 percent of the products needed to support the program, from insulation to replacement windows.

Home Star will also help cash strapped homeowners defray the costs of investments that will lower their energy bills. It would provide rebates of $1,000 to $1,500 for insulation, duct and air sealing, installation of more energy efficient equipment and other items at a “Silver Star” level. For more comprehensive home energy improvements (“Gold Star level”), consumers would receive a federal rebate of up to $3,000 for retrofits that result in savings of 20 percent. And the higher the energy savings achieved, the higher the rebate, of up to $8,000.

Homeowners who use less energy can create an economic environment that can help ease problems in the housing market. Not coincidentally, the mortgage default crisis occurred at exactly the same time that energy prices spiked in 2007 and 2008. High energy bills may only be one factor in pushing a homeowner over the edge. But the correlation between high energy bills and a family’s ability to afford a mortgage payment is a direct one.

The icing on the cake is that Home Star will help preserve the environment. Residential buildings generate more than 20 percent of our nation’s carbon dioxide emissions — twice what automobiles emit. Existing techniques and technologies in energy efficiency retrofitting can reduce home energy use by 30 percent per home and lower associated greenhouse gas emissions significantly. Total associated savings in home energy bills is estimated to be as much as $9.4 billion over 10 years. Not a bad return on a $6 billion investment in Home Star!

If Home Star passes, programs will be set up here in America, right now. Its unemployed citizens can finally get back to work. Retrofit workers will earn decent wages, spurring new opportunities for themselves and their families. The societal benefits of Home Star are infinite.

By enacting Home Star, we can help end The Great Blue Collar Depression and keep our economy on the road to recovery.

**”Unemployment, Inequality and tackling America’s Job Crisis, published by Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies, Feb. 2010.http://www.clms.neu.edu/publication/documents/Labor_Underutilization_Problems_of_U.pdf

Stephen L. Cowell is chairman and chief executive officer of Conservation Services Group, based in Westborough, Mass. Mr. Cowell also co-founded Efficiency First, the Home Star Coalition and serves as president of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Council

*Originally published May 17 at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-cowell/a-green-cure-for-the-blue_b_578521.html#

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Thursday, May 20, 2010

There’s a new sheriff in town

DOE takes on enforcement of standards

By Marianne DiMascio

It’s likely that you’ve heard of EnergyStar and seen the recent headlines about USDepartment of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency efforts to ensure that appliances are as energy efficient as the blue EnergyStar label indicates. It’s less likely that you’ve heard of a parallel DOE effort to ensure that minimum energy conservation standards are being met. Because mandatory efficiency standards apply to the manufacture of appliances and therefore are less noticeable to the consumer, standards don’t often make the six o’clock news. However, DOE is actively taking on the enforcement of standards as shown by the recent headlines on the website of the DOE General Counsel:

  • “DOE Requests Information to Improve Energy Efficiency Enforcement Process”
  • “DOE institutes Enforcement Action against 4 Showerhead Manufacturers for Failure to Certify 116 products”
  • “DOE Opens Three Investigations into Alleged Refrigerator Efficiency Violations”

In the latter press release, DOE notes that it: “takes seriously and will respond promptly to all credible information that products do not meet the federal energy efficiency standards.”

The stepped up enforcement is part of the Obama administration’s efforts to significantly increase the certification and enforcement of existing energy conservation standards. On May 4, DOE published a Request for Information asking for public feedback on a number of enforcement related issues. The website notes that DOE wants “to encourage compliance and to prevent manufacturers who break the law from having a competitive advantage over those that adhere to the rules.” According to General Counsel Scott Blake Harris, improvements will “make sure that [DOE] energy efficiency rules are rigorously and fairly enforced in order to save both energy and money for American consumers.”

Suggested improvements include the development of an ongoing program for verification testing of products sold on the market. Called “off-the-shelf” testing, it would involve acquiring products from stores for verification and then testing them at independent laboratories to verify that they meet conservation standards.

While the standards program is thought to have a generally good record of compliance, the lack of rigorous enforcement to date undermines confidence in national appliance standards.

“Given the magnitude of energy savings, we are pleased that DOE has taken steps to maintain the integrity of DOE’s appliance standards program” said Andrew deLaski, the executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. DOE’s website notes that “since President Obama came to office, DOE has issued or codified new efficiency standards for more than twenty different products, which will save consumers between $250 and $300 billion on their energy bills through 2030.”

One low-income advocate applauds DOE’s renewed commitment to enforcement. “Standards are one of the easiest, cheapest, and quickest ways to decrease energy use, save consumers money, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” notes Charlie Harak of the National Consumer Law Center. “Enforcement of this incredibly cost effective energy strategy is not only what the law requires – it’s the smart thing to do.”

For more information on enforcement of standards, see the DOE website and the General Counsel Enforcement page.

Marianne DiMascio of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project is a guest blogger for Energy Efficiency Markets. Visit www.realenergywriters.com to pick up a free Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Energy use drops: It’s not just the economy

By Elisa Wood

May 13, 2010

We’ve been hearing a lot about a drop in energy consumption as a result of the economic downturn. In fact, US energy use per person declined last year to its lowest level since 1968.

Economic activity and energy use are directly linked. But lately, several reports have noted that the economic slowdown is not the only reason energy consumption is falling. Aggressive energy efficiency efforts also have impact.

That impact will be “major” in the years to come, according to the Energy Information Administration, the chief energy data collector for the US government. The agency this week released its “Annual Energy Outlook 2010” with projections to 2035.

The federal report shows us decreasing energy use significantly if we employ best available efficiency technologies over the next 25 years – that is if we buy the most energy efficient appliances and build homes to the highest efficiency standards. Under this scenario, energy consumption could drop by as much as 27%. But if we stick to the status quo, homeowners will increase energy use by about 0.2%.

This drop in energy use will not happen immediately. In fact, EIA sees energy consumption rising slightly as the economy rebounds. It then begins fall in 2013 as higher efficiency standards take effect for vehicles and lighting.

Lighting standards will have the most profound impact on electric consumption. Federal requirements will reduce electricity used for lights by 30% in 2014. When the standards tighten further in 2020, power use for lighting drops 60%. Overall, by 2035 our lights should eat up 44% less electricity than in 2008.

This drop in energy consumption does not signal austerity. On the contrary, our use of electric devices is growing. The EIA sees us increasing our use of computers, household appliances, water heaters, stoves, heat, air conditioning and microwaves. And for the first time this year we’ll direct more of our electricity into television watching than food refrigeration.

So it appears the predictions of today’s energy efficiency advocates may be correct: the economy can reduce energy consumption without sacrificing creature comforts.

The compete EIA report is here. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/index.html

Visit Elisa Wood at http://www.realenergywriters.com/ and pick up her free Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Efficiency and the not-to-be-ignored gas-fired plant

May 6, 2010

By Elisa Wood

Carbon dioxide emissions dropped significantly in the US in 2009. The economy played an obvious role; not so obvious was the influence of power generation and its increasing efficiency.

CO2 emissions have been trending down for the last decade by about 0.9%. But the 2009 drop was far more dramatic — 7% — the largest decline since the Energy Information Administration began keeping energy data more than 60 years ago.

This tells us a lot about just how bad economic conditions were. (As if we needed to be told!)

Compare the last decade to the previous one and you get the picture. Our gross domestic product grew about 3.3% from 1990 to 1999 then dropped by about half for the next decade, with much of the decline attributable to the recent miserable financial situation, according to a May 5 EIA report.

CO2 levels tell us about the economy because emissions are produced by power plants and transportation fuels. The better the economy the more energy we use and presumably the more CO2 we produce. For example, we consumed only 13,277 thousand barrels of petroleum per day for transportation in 2009, down from 14,287 thousand barrels per day two years earlier, a 7.1 percent drop.

But here is where it gets interesting. Even with the economy falling over the cliff, emissions should have grown a little bit, about 0.6% to 0.7%, based on past scenarios, so what changed? Why did CO2 emissions drop instead.

EIA says power plant efficiency played a big role. We have been moving toward greater use of highly efficient natural gas-fired plants, which are less carbon intensive than coal-fired generation, our largest electricity source. From 2000 to 2008, the US added about 120 gigawatts of natural gas combined cycle generation.

“If the emissions intensity had not changed and emissions had risen at the same rate as generation, they would have reached 456 million metric tons in 2009. Therefore, the increased efficiency of new generation capacity resulted in avoided emissions of 82 million metric tons of carbon dioxide,” EIA said.

Several market factors played a role in our construction of new natural gas-fired plants. This type of plant is relatively easy and quick to build (unlike nuclear power), and it does not face the kind of environmental opposition of coal-fired generation. In addition, market pricing favored natural gas in 2009. Coal prices rose 6.8% from 2008 to 2009 while natural gas prices fell 48%, according to EIA.

Our addition of wind farms to the grid and our greater use of nuclear power also played a role in carbon reductions, although less so than natural gas efficiency, says the report.

So, economic forces favored the efficient choice. But what will happen when the economy revives? Natural gas prices are known for their volatility; spikes can be dramatic when supplies tighten and natural gas can fall out of favor.

I won’t pretend to be a fortune teller on energy prices and supply choices. EIA, however, appears to think that even when the economy rebounds our energy supply mix will still trend toward lower emissions, with most new power demand met with gas-fired generation and renewables.

“If coal, which was more heavily impacted by the recent economic downturn than other energy sources, rebounds disproportionately, the carbon intensity of the energy supply could rise above the 2009 level. However, longer-term trends continue to suggest decline in both the amount of energy used per unit of economic output and the carbon intensity of our energy supply, which both work to restrain emissions,” the report says.

The role of gas-fired generation is a large topic within inner-utility and power planning circles. But the resource tends to be ignored by the green community. Clearly, though, if you are a CO2 watcher, this power source is important to keep an eye on as we piece together our future energy puzzle.

For more details see: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/environment/emissions/carbon/

Visit Elisa Wood at http://www.realenergywriters.com/ and pick up her free Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.