Energy Efficiency Seen as Key in 'Rebuilding America'
Investments in building efficiency retrofits can simultaneously address the challenges of economic recovery, energy insecurity, and global warming by laying the foundation for sustained economic growth, driving demand in the construction and manufacturing sectors, and creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs across the country, according to a recent white paper issued by the Energy Future Coalition and the Center for American Progress, a 25x’25 endorsing partner.
Energy efficiency is the option of first choice in the 25x’25 Vision for a clean energy future and the report puts a renewed focus on effectively managing the expenditure of the nation’s energy sources. The paper is an outgrowth of “Rebuilding America,” a coalition created earlier this year that has brought together labor and industry leaders and energy policy advocates. Rebuilding America calls for a comprehensive energy savings and jobs program to retrofit 50 million buildings by 2020.
In the report, the authors note that buildings today account for 70 percent of all U.S. electricity consumption and 40 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Much of the housing and building stock is old, inefficient and unnecessarily wasteful. While building codes and green building standards offer a tool for achieving deep improvements in energy use for new buildings, half of the buildings that will be standing in 30 years already dot the U.S. urban and rural landscape.
However, deep building retrofits can cut energy use by 20 to 40 percent with proven techniques and off-the-shelf technologies. The improvements, the authors say, can pay for themselves from the energy they save. “Rebuilding America” aims to reduce energy bills across the economy by hundreds of billions of dollars annually and stimulate long-term economic activity by creating construction and manufacturing jobs.
Upgrading rural structures, including farm facilities, provides one of several ready markets for energy efficiency retrofits, whether it’s installing new light fixtures, insulation, programmable thermostats and controllers, more effective grain drying systems, or energy-free or low energy waterers.
“Rebuilding American” calls for specific public policies to encourage widespread private investments in energy efficiency and overcome barriers to a thriving nationwide marketplace for energy efficiency products and services. Among other hurdles, the authors cite the poor availability of information for consumers about their energy consumption, split incentives between building owners and tenants to invest in energy efficiency retrofits, and a lack of capital or access to capital to support investments in energy efficiency.
The 25x’25 Alliance has long provided a clean energy policy framework that combines energy efficiency, the cheapest, cleanest and most abundant power option available, with abundant biofuel, biomass, wind energy, solar power, geothermal energy and hydropower resources to achieve a new energy future that will enhance our national security through reduced dependence on foreign oil, boost our economy and improve our environment.
Energy efficiency programs like that advocated by “Rebuilding America” pay off with an immediate stimulus to counter the economic downturn, and will provide a long-term investment in the economy. They represent opportunities that should not be missed.
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