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House Climate and Energy LegislationH.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), was passed by the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009. This legislation creates a cap-and-trade policy, a market-based incentive to reduce carbon emissions. It mandates a combined renewable and electricity standard requiring that 20% of electricity sales by 2020 be met by renewable energy and energy efficiency. The bill also includes a number of key policies designed to maximize savings from energy efficiency, including improved building codes, appliance and lighting standards, and residential and commercial retrofits. In addition, allowances from the sale of carbon credits in the cap-and-trade system will provide funding for a number of important energy efficiency initiatives. Together, these have the potential to help people and businesses to become more efficient and to drive adoption of energy-efficient technologies, our country’s cheapest and most abundant energy source.
Official Documents
ACEEE’s top two priorities are to work with the renewable energy community to increase the combined renewable electricity and energy efficiency standard, and to insert provisions that would allocate at least one-third of funding going to electric distribution utilities to efficiency measures, much like the allowances going to gas distribution companies in Section 782b. Adding this requirement for electric utilities to spend one-third of their allowances on energy efficiency would net almost an additional $215 billion in cumulative cost savings and would save consumers over 2.2 quads of energy by 2030. Savings from the bill could be much improved by strengthening the Combined Efficiency and Renewable Electricity Standard to require utilities to reduce electricity demand by 10% by 2020. As it stands now, the bill allows for 5% of electricity reductions to come from efficiency measures, with an option for governors to petition that an additional 3% of the reductions come from efficiency in a given state. As baseline, business-as-usual projections for efficiency savings are close to 5% of nationwide electricity sales in 2020, the savings generated from a 10% requirement would have a more significant and positive impact on our economy. An improved electricity standard would result in an extra $20 billion in cumulative consumer savings by 2030 -- potential savings that H.R. 2454 is currently leaving on the table.For more information contact:
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