Dozens of companies and organizations are pleading with Congress to save the popular Energy Star program for appliances and other products, rejecting President Trump’s proposal to eliminate it.
The companies, including major names such as 3M, Johnson Controls Inc., Philips Lighting and Intel, joined advocates such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Alliance to Save Energy, which organized the letter, in backing the program in a Tuesday letter to congressional appropriators.
“This voluntary partnership program … helps businesses, state and local governments, non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, homeowners, and consumers save money by investing in energy efficiency,” they wrote.
Read more (The Hill)
Businesses, as well as residential users, utilities and governments, are expected to increase spending on energy efficiency programs, according to Navigant Research. The firm predicts that outlays will more than double – from $25.6 billion to $56.1 billion – between 2017 and 2026.
An indicator of the heightened spending, the press release says, is that the increase in mergers and acquisitions among utilities, technology providers and energy equipment manufacturers.
Read more (Energy Manager Today)
The smart home has seen impressive technological innovations designed to improve sustainability and reduced energy usage, leading to a drop in associated utility expenditures. But the same is not true for businesses: The “smart store” does not yet exist.
To make the smart store a reality, the same innovations found in the smart home must be applied to brick-and-mortar retail outlets to help them manage energy usage and reduce overhead expenses.
Whether or not a retailer operates in multiple locations, energy costs take up a large percentage of overhead expenses (think refrigeration units at a grocery store or AC units running at a coffee shop on a hot summer day). Without an energy management system in place, these HVAC systems often go unchecked, unnecessarily running through the day and night. Worse yet, their energy costs are assumed to be a necessary, unchangeable factor.
Retailers have an opportunity to save immensely on energy usage and overhead expenses if similar innovations from the smart home carry over to the store. For these businesses, connected devices are the next step in focusing on sustainability while cutting costs, increasing energy efficiency and easing the work of energy managers.
Read more (Greentech Media)
The Trump White House has wasted no time in targeting pro-climate policies, freezing energy-efficiency standards finalized during the last days of the Obama administration. Its “America First Energy Plan” makes no mention of renewable energy or energy efficiency, and it is focused on fossil fuels. But in 2012, Donald J. Trump, the businessman, played a different tune.
That year, Mr. Trump finished securing almost $1 million in energy-efficiency incentives and low-interest loans from New York State to fit a Trump-branded residential tower in Westchester County with eco-friendly fixtures, state records show.
“I strongly believe in clean energy, in conserving energy, all of that — more than anybody,” Mr. Trump is quoted as saying in a fact sheet about the project, at Trump Tower at City Center in White Plains. As part of the project, a state-of-the-art power system that recycles energy was installed.
Read more (The New York Times)
Home efficiency advocates and homebuilders are squaring off in Virginia over what many stakeholders say is an overdue update to energy codes for new home construction.
A public comment period that began February 20 runs through April 21 with open meetings and an online portal. It is to be followed by a public hearing May 15 in Richmond. Gov. Terry McAuliffe will have the opportunity to add his efficiency recommendations before he leaves office at year’s end.
Despite the opportunities for public input, the interim path is a complex one and depends on interested parties making sure their views are heard and then surviving a vote that is heavily influenced by homebuilders.
Ultimately, any energy changes in the state’s residential new construction code will be decided by the board of the Department of Housing and Community Development, which includes several private homebuilders and developers.
Read more (Southeast Energy News)
At every level of government—from a small rural community in the U.S. to the entire European Union—there’s one common energy policy that everyone seems to agree on: energy efficiency. Theoretically, it has its benefits. Saving energy saves money. It also reduces pollution and the emissions that cause climate change. And, in developing countries where energy access is a major problem, it conserves more energy for those who have none.
Yet, for all the appeal of energy efficiency as a goal, more and more economists are finding that energy efficiency policies don’t actually work all that well. Take my colleague Michael Greenstone. He and his coauthors studied an energy efficiency program in Michigan and found the costs to implement the program greatly exceeded the benefits. He’s not alone. A growing field of research is focused on assessing energy efficiency policies, and is finding similar discouraging results (see more here). The point in all this research is not to denounce the goals of energy efficiency and energy conservation. Rather, the studies demonstrate that policies must be tested before being widely implemented.
Work in the United States continues to test those policies and is showing that when households are given information that compares their electricity use to that of their peers, they tend to reduce consumption. But we know little about how this behavior translates to the developing world, with different cultural norms, incomes and consumption levels. That’s where a new study of mine comes in.
Read more (Forbes)
Since the Alliance was created 40 years ago, we’ve witnessed great strides in energy efficiency, and much of it can be attributed to champions of the cause working in every corner of government, business and industry.
On Wednesday, Feb. 8, the Alliance celebrated three professionals who played a major role in these accomplishments (full photo gallery here), but have not received recognition commensurate to their contributions to the field. They are the 2017Unsung Heroes of Energy Efficiency!
- Chester Carson, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
As a Professional Staff Member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Carson focuses his work on energy efficiency, building codes, appliance standards, climate change, biomass, wind, solar, and rural energy. See Chester’s full bio.
- Mark Fowler, Legislative Assistant, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.)
Fowler advises Rep. Welch on energy, environment, and agriculture policy, as well as related matters within the Energy and Commerce Committee. Prior to joining the Congressman, Mark served as a policy aide in the office of Senator Claire McCaskill where he also worked on energy and agriculture policy. See Mark’s full bio.
- Maria Vargas, U.S. Department of Energy
As Director of the Better Buildings Challenge at the Department of Energy, Vargas oversees the programs’ efforts to makeAmerican buildings 20 percent more efficient in the next decade. She also serves as a Senior Program Advisor in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy. See Maria’s full bio.
Read more (Alliance to Save Energy)
After decades of technology development, business model innovation and policy progress, the U.S. economy is now decisively growing — independent of energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Since 2007, U.S. GDP has grown by 12 percent, while energy consumption has fallen by 3.6 percent, according to the new 2017 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook, compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE).
This year’s fifth edition report builds on last year’s Factbook findings that show the U.S. economy grew by 10 percent since 2007, while energy consumption fell by 2.4 percent. “In other words, energy productivity continues to improve as less and less energy is needed to fuel growth,” the authors wrote.
At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions are plummeting. Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions hit a 25-year low in 2016, down 12 percent from their peak in 2007 and 11.6 percent below 2005 levels. That puts the U.S. nearly halfway toward its Paris Agreement pledge to reduce national emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
Reductions are even more notable within the power sector, which saw greenhouse gas emissions fall by 5.3 percent in 2016 alone. The power sector’s carbon footprint has shrunk by 24 percent since 2005, thanks in large part to market forces that increased the availability of lower-carbon energy resources — namely the boom in domestic natural-gas production, a dramatic reduction in renewable energy prices, and expanded adoption of energy efficiency measures.
Read more (Greentech Media)
Researchers from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) will play a lead role in a new U.S.-funded consortium that will aim to improve the energy efficiency of the nation’s industrial manufacturing processes.
The Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Institute, based at the Rochester Institute of Technology, will explore strategies to reduce the costs of technologies needed to reuse, recycle, and remanufacture materials such as metals, polymers, fibers, and electronic waste. The project will be supported by a $70 million U.S. Department of Energy grant over five years in addition to $70 million in private cost-share commitments from the institute’s more than 100 partners.
Its goal is to improve energy efficiency in U.S. manufacturing 50 percent by 2027, which would save billions of dollars in energy costs and reduce overall environmental impacts. It is part of the DOE’s “Manufacturing USA” initiative.
For Yale researchers, it will present an opportunity to build upon years of previous research into the lifecycles of metals and other resources, done by the F&ES-based Center for Industrial Ecology (CIE) — and to work with a wide range of partners from academia, industry, and government.
Read more (Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies)
Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, is drawing up plans to move forward on the president’s campaign promise to “get rid of” the agency he hopes to head. He has a blueprint to repeal climate change rules, cut staffing levels, close regional offices and permanently weaken the agency’s regulatory authority.
Read more (The New York Times)
