WASHINGTON – While offshore drilling and alternative energy technologies dominate headlines, the administration is quietly pushing ahead with stringent new appliance standards that stand to save consumers billions of dollars and make one of the biggest dents yet in global warming emissions.
In a sharp break from the Bush administration, last year President Barack Obama announced plans to accelerate minimum efficiency standards for more than a dozen categories of home and commercial appliances. Last week the Department of Energy rolled out stronger than expected standards for home water heaters. Before the end of the year, standards for home refrigerators will be set.
“These energy-conserving appliance standards are a critical part of the administration’s overall efforts to save energy in homes and businesses nationwide,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “By raising the efficiency requirements of our everyday appliances, we will save money for American families and companies, reduce carbon pollution, and enhance our energy security for decades to come.”
While many consumers are aware of the government-run Energy Star program, which labels the most energy-efficient appliances, few realize that the government also sets minimum standards for home and commercial appliances.
“It’s great because it’s a silent sort of a program,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. “Still, it saves more energy than any other program that has ever existed except for automobile economy standards.”
A typical new refrigerator uses about one quarter of the energy that those 30 years ago used, deLaski said, despite the fact that today’s refrigerators are bigger, have more features and cost less.
Minimum standards are especially important for renters or home buyers who don’t get to choose their home’s appliances.
“A lot of our residents have to pay for their utilities and when energy prices went up, they were coming to us screaming,” said Jack Cooper, director of the Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants. His group was part of a coalition that sued the Bush administration for failing to update efficiency standards for 22 appliances as required by law.
“For our low-income folks, these standards can make a big difference,” Cooper said.
The standards set the bar for energy efficiency rather than for a particular technology. However, some standards, such as the new ones for water heaters, are only immediately achievable using particular technologies. Manufacturers sometimes oppose standards that necessitate new equipment.
States can also set their own standards. Last year California was the first to set efficiency standards for televisions, which have become one of the home’s biggest energy hogs as larger screens have become more popular. Now, a handful of other states are following suit.
DeLaski’s group estimates that new standards being set under the Obama administration could save enough power by 2030 to meet every American household’s electricity needs for 18 months.
“With the Secretary’s signature on a new rule, he locks in concrete savings,” he said. “It’s savings you can take to the bank.”