The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 ("ACES" or "H.R. 2454") includes many important energy efficiency provisions that have been largely overlooked in discussions and analyses of the bill thus far. ACEEE has analyzed benefits of these energy efficiency provisions in each of the states and looked at three provisions to improving the energy efficiency in the legislation by including a stand-alone energy efficiency resource standard (EERS) requiring 10% cumulative savings by 2020, directing one-third of electric local distribution company allowances to energy efficiency, and sustaining State Energy and Environmental Development funding at 9.5% of allowance revenue through 2030.
ACES with these enhancements would in 2030:
These consumer household savings would, for every state, far more than offset the cost of cap-and-trade as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (a national estimate).
While all states show significant increases in jobs and net consumer savings per household, there is significant variation among the states. This variation can best be seen in the net consumer savings per household, which normalize a number of these parameters. While most states have per household savings in 2020 ranging from $150–350, there are some outliers, mostly at the high end. Most of the states with high savings have larger than average energy consumption (and savings opportunities) in the commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors. More generally, this variation results from variations in energy prices and the relative energy intensity per household, combined with the presence of a significant state EERS. States with higher energy prices and/or greater energy use per household like Wyoming tend to have higher savings. For jobs, the number of jobs generated roughly correlate with population.
The summary table on the next page presents net jobs created, annual energy savings, annual net consumer savings, and cumulative CO2 for each state (plus D.C.). A copy of ACEEE's fact sheets on impacts in each state can be downloaded here.
- save American consumers an average of $832 per household
- create over 1 million jobs
- reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 900 MMT
