ACEEE PRESS BRIEF
NEW SENATE ENERGY BILL WILL SAVE MORE
ENERGY
For further information, contact: Steven Nadel or Ed Osann at 202-429-8873
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2002
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The new version of a national energy
bill introduced today by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD)
will save nearly three times more energy than the energy bill
approved by the House of Representatives last summer. According to
an analysis of the new bill by the American Council for an
Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a nonprofit research organization,
new automobile fuel economy standards and new tax incentives for
energy efficiency will yield major energy savings for years to come.
"With these additions, the energy efficiency savings under the
Senate bill will be nearly three times larger than those from
comparable sections of H.R. 4, the House energy bill," noted Steven
Nadel, ACEEE's Executive Director. "However, the Daschle bill could
be improved further if a few key provisions were strengthened."
Today's bill adds two major improvements to S. 1766, an energy
bill introduced by Sen. Daschle in December. First, the new bill
includes improvements to automobile fuel economy standards, raising
the average efficiency of new vehicles from today's 24 miles per
gallon (mpg) to 35 mpg by 2013. Therese Langer, ACEEE's
Transportation Program Director, stated, "Forty miles per gallon
would be a better target, but this is a big step forward. This fuel
economy provision would bring significant oil savings in the near
future, while improving highway safety, reducing air pollution, and
expanding vehicle choice for the public." Second, the bill adds tax
credits for several advanced energy-saving measures, including very
efficient cars and trucks, appliances, water heaters, air
conditioners, heat pumps, new homes, new commercial buildings, and
combined heat and power systems.
Overall, ACEEE estimates that the Senate bill would reduce U.S.
energy use by about 72 quads over the 2002–2020 period, a reduction
of about 3.3 percent of the projected consumption over this period.
(Note: a "quad" is a quadrillion British thermal units [Btus], a
measure of energy use; the United States used 99 quads in 2000.) The
two new sections account for 65 percent of the bill's energy
efficiency savings, according to the ACEEE analysis. Other major
efficiency provisions in the bill would establish new
minimum-efficiency standards for a variety of consumer and
commercial products (19 percent of the total savings) and would
obtain voluntary commitments from businesses to improve energy
efficiency at industrial plants (9 percent of the total savings).
See attached
tables and figure.
ACEEE estimates that the electricity saved by the bill would
defer the need for nearly 500 new power plants (300 megawatts each)
in 2020, while the oil and natural gas savings would be equivalent
to nearly 8 billion barrels of oil, representing thousands of
supertanker loads. In comparison, a previous ACEEE analysis of the
energy bill passed by the House of Representatives found 25 quads of
cumulative efficiency savings.
ACEEE has also looked at opportunities to improve upon the Senate
bill. In particular, the bill's electricity restructuring title
lacks any significant efficiency provision, a point that Nadel
called a "major disappointment," noting that "more than a dozen
states have included significant energy efficiency provisions in
their electric utility restructuring laws in order to address cuts
in energy efficiency efforts caused by restructuring. The federal
government should follow these leaders." ACEEE also recommends
adding minimum-efficiency standards for traffic signals and
replacement tires to the bill and making refinements to some of the
tax provisions in order to increase energy savings per federal
dollar of tax credit.