Appliance Standards Legislation Introduced and Other News

With limited time left in this session of Congress, a bipartisan group of senators led by Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Alliance Honorary Vice-Chair Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) introduced appliance standards legislation that will provide net savings of more than $90 billion to American households. In the National Journal's Energy Experts blog, Alliance President Kateri Callahan wondered if legislators would show the urgency needed to pass the bill and asked them to show leadership on a bill good for all the American people. Here’s hoping they step up to the challenge.

• The Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Schools program in California helped schools save big by going green — three districts in Southwest Riverside County saved more than $911,000 between September 2008 and June 2010. Way to go! [Southwest Riverside News Network]
• While appliances like refrigerators and dishwashers use much less energy now than they did in the ‘70s, Americans still require about the same amount of energy in their homes as they did then.  The culprits? Larger homes and new gadgets like flat-screen TVs are guzzling the energy savings produced by energy-efficient appliances. The result, according to the Alliance’s Lowell Ungar, is that the trends “have balanced each other out.” [The Washington Post]