Providence, RI—A new national report finds that Rhode Island households would save an average of $158 per year and 2,900 sustainable jobs would be created in the state over the next ten years if Congress acts now to include strong energy efficiency improvements in energy and climate legislation. The report, entitled "Energy Efficiency in the American Clean Energy Security Act of 2009: Impacts of Current Provisions and Opportunities to Enhance the Legislation", was released by Environment Rhode Island and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The efficiency provisions would prevent 1,000,000 metric tons of global warming emissions, the equivalent of removing the pollution from 180,000 cars from the road for a year.
"Americans know that energy efficiency is the cleanest, quickest, cheapest way of reducing our energy use and pollution," concluded Bailey McRae of Environment Rhode Island. “These common sense solutions will put cash back in our pockets and help protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the future of the planet.”
J. Timmons Roberts, director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Brown University agrees: "Improving our efficiency is a win-win-win-win-win. That was five wins: people of modest incomes and the poor save on their energy bills, especially their winter heating costs. These costs are unpredictable as oil prices spike and generally are climbing. Efficiency work, like caulking, insulating, and replacing windows, creates a LOT of jobs, for precisely the people most hurting from the recession and Rhode Island's long-term job loss. Efficiency improves our national security, reducing our dependency on all manner of repressive and autocratic governments around the world. Efficiency, if we are serious about it, is the quickest, most cost-effective way to address global warming. Studies are showing huge gains can be made very quickly, and they help everyone (except the oil and coal companies, who are for obvious reasons organizing astroturf protests right now). And serious efficiency work shows U.S. leadership and our addressing the moral crisis that is climate change, where our frankly mindless waste is saddling the world's poor and our children with a truly unacceptable suffering. It is our duty to do this now."
The report also found that energy efficiency policies from the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), which passed the House of Representatives in June, would create 1800 new jobs, save the average household $135 a year, and reduce annual carbon emissions by 500,000 metric tons in Rhode Island by 2020.
Andy Keating, at the Design Build and Construction Management firm Stack Design Build said: "As a new, green focused firm, committed to designing and building with good energy practice, our success and growth has been aided by the energy efficiency measures and incentives provided by current programs and legislation such as the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. This is particularly important for a small and innovative company entering the market at a very difficult time. Even amidst such a challenging economic climate in the industry, the timing is excellent for the next round of innovators and new firms to flourish, and Rhode Island is a great place for this to happen. Clients and consumers in the design and construction sector have become very savvy about energy efficiency strategies, incentives, simple payback on their first cost expenditures and how they can leverage those first costs. Green, high performance projects like the Box Office in Olneyville and the Abode 21 green affordable housing initiative currently underway in Elmwood are great examples of this."
The group called for policy improvements which would generate more than 569,000 clean energy jobs and save the average household $283 per year nationwide by 2020. These policy improvements would result in 48 percent more jobs and 32 percent more consumer savings than the efficiency measures in the House passed bill. In addition, these improvements would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 480 million metric tons in 2020, equivalent to taking more than 87 million cars off the road for a year.
J. Timmons Roberts highlighted what exactly these numbers mean for Rhode Island: "Climate change is happening, it is here in Rhode Island, and threatens our future. In particular, rising sea levels and more frequent storms will bring flooding to coastlines and low-lying parts of the state, and people will experience hotter and more unhealthy summers. The USA must act on climate change this year, because without US leadership, there will be no deal in Copenhagen in December to extend and strengthen the Kyoto treaty."
Senators can maximize economic benefits to consumers by:
• Supporting a strengthened Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS) requiring utility companies to reduce their energy usage by at least 10 percent by providing incentives and assistance to help customers make their homes and businesses more energy-efficient (ACESA included a 5% EERS with an optional 3% increase).
• Modeling electric utility allocation on that of the natural gas utility allocation in ACES, by requiring that one-third be used for energy efficiency improvements.
• Extending the allocation of carbon allowance revenue to the State Energy and Environmental Development (SEED) provision.
“While the House bill is a critical first step in harnessing the power of energy efficiency, this report shows we can save even more money, create more jobs and reduce more pollution,” said McRae. “Senators Reed and Whitehouse should lead the fight for common sense energy efficiency policies and jumpstart the transition to a clean energy economy.”
The complete report can be found here.
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Environment Rhode Island (www.environmentrhodeisland.org) is a state-based, citizen-funded environmental organization working for clean air, clean water, and open space.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient America (ACEEE) is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection. For more information, see http://www.aceee.org.
