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. The bill requires utilities to obtain 20% of their energy through a combination of renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2020, with energy efficiency allowed to meet up to 8% of the 20% goal. Other energy efficiency provisions facilitate savings through improved building codes and retrofits, and appliance standards, and within the transportation and industrial sectors.
ACEEE has analyzed the benefits of the existing energy efficiency provisions and has also evaluated enhancements to three provisions to improve the energy efficiency in the legislation; 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 (SEED) funding at 9.5% of allowance revenue through 2030.
In 2030, the ACES energy efficiency provisions with these enhancements would:
- save American consumers an average of over $830 per household
- create more than 1 million jobs
- reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 900 MMT
This level of consumer household savings would more than offset the cost of cap and trade legislation as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.1
The energy efficiency enhancements to ACES would result in the creation of 71% more jobs nationwide and an additional 70% in net consumer savings per household in 2030 compared to ACES, as seen below.
