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Alliance to Save Energy Column State Energy Plans; discover which states are forging ahead to promote energy efficiency. |
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Colorado HB 1313 would require the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), on or before October 15, 2004, to amend or replace its existing rules on integrated resource planning. In developing the preferred plan, this bill requires the utility to consider as broad a range of energy efficiency and load management programs as possible. For more information click here
Connecticut SB 145 would require the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management to establish minimum energy efficiency standards for certain heating, cooling, lighting and other types of products. For more information click here
Florida SB 2174 would create minimum energy efficiency standards for specified types of new products sold, offered for sale, or installed in this state. For more information click here
Kentucky HB 490 would require each retail electric supplier to make net metering available to any eligible customer-generator whom the supplier currently serves or solicits for service. For more information click here
Illinois HB 4267, the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards Act, would provide minimum efficiency standards for certain new products sold or installed in Illinois. This bill would require manufacturers to test their products and certify the results to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and to identify conforming products by means of a mark, label, or tag. This bill, if passed, would be effective immediately. For more information click here
Illinois SB 3134 would create the State Building Conservation Act, which would require the Department of Central Management Services to adopt and publish energy conservation standards for all construction of new state capital projects. The bill also requires certain state agencies to reduce energy use in public buildings that they administer by 10% per square foot on or before July 1, 2008 and by 15% on or before July 1, 2011. Requires all State agencies to procure energy efficient products certified by the federal government as Energy Star products or certified under the Federal Energy Management Program unless the products are shown not to be cost-effective on a life cycle cost basis. For more information click here
Maryland HB 314 would require the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), in conjunction with the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA), to establish a Low Emissions Vehicle Program, which is functionally equivalent to California 's Low Emissions Vehicle (LEV) Program, applicable to vehicles of the 2010 model year and each model year thereafter. MDE and the MVA must jointly adopt regulations by December 31, 2006 . For more information click here
Maryland SB 654 would create an Energy-Saving Investment Fund to provide funding for energy efficiency programs; requiring specified electric and gas customers to contribute to the Fund through an energy-saving investment charge set by the Public Service Commission in a specified manner. The bill also would require the Maryland Energy Administration to develop and manage energy efficiency programs; providing for a plan for the disbursement of funds to implement the programs throughout the state. For more information click here
Massachusetts HB 631 directs the division of energy resources to establish a program to encourage the use of energy efficient appliances by consumers. The program shall provide consumers with an exemption from the sales tax for purchases at retail of clothes washers, refrigerators or dishwashers which meet or exceed applicable energy saving efficiency requirements developed by the United States Department of Energy for the Energy Star program. For more information click here
Nebraska LB 888 would require the state to adopt the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code as the Nebraska Energy Code. The bill would ensure that a minimum energy standard is maintained throughout the state. LB 888 would also provide for the training of local code officials and residential and commercial builders on the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code. The operative date of the bill is July 1, 2005 . For more information click here
New Mexico HB 251 will enact the Advanced Energy Technologies Economic Development Act and create a fund and grants program to promote research and development of energy conservation technologies. For more information click here New Mexico SB 86, the "No Excise Tax on Fuel-Efficient Vehicles" bill amends the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Act [NMSA 1978, Chapter 7, Article 14] to provide a one-time exemption from the motor vehicle excise tax for the purchase of new gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles at the time of the issuance of the original certificate of title for the vehicle. The reduction in motor vehicle excise tax on qualifying vehicles is scheduled to begin on July 1, 2004 . For more information click here New Mexico HB 380 would create the Energy Efficiency and Renewable energy Bonding Act to fund energy efficiency in state and school district buildings with the proceeds of bonds that will be secured by gross receipt taxes (GRT) revenues. The bill instructs the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) to develop a state plan to install these measures in state and school district buildings by the end of FY10. For more information click here
New Mexico SB 560 would appropriate $850,000 for the start-up funding for low-income home alternative energy projects. The funding would assist with basic start-up costs for low-to-moderate income homes and homes without basic services. For more information click here
Pennsylvania HB 687 would exempt various appliances, when purchased by a purchaser, from the tax imposed under Article II of the act of March 4, 1971 (P.L.6, No.2), known as the Tax Reform Code of 1971. For more Information click here
Vermont HB 687 would allow schools in the state of Vermont to enter into energy performance contracts. The bill proposes to authorize school districts to finance energy conservation improvements through performance contracting; it creates a pilot project through which four schools may receive up to $250,000.00 each in state aid as an incentive to make the improvements. For more information click here
Vermont S. 261 would support the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency industries and infrastructure in Vermont. The bill would establish specific energy efficiency standards to apply to selected commercial and residential products. S. 261 would also enable an efficiency utility to develop appropriate combined heat and power systems that result in the conservation and efficient use of energy. For more information click here
Washington HB 2333 would establish an energy efficiency standard and a renewable energy standard that would apply to public and private electric utilities (except small utilities) and customers who purchase electricity from the market. The energy efficiency standard would be effective beginning in 2006 and the renewable energy standard would be effective beginning in 2010. For more information click here
Washington HB 3141 would require fossil fueled thermal power plants with a generating capacity of 25 MW or more to provide mitigation for 20 percent of the CO2 emissions produced by the plants over a period of 30 years. This requirement would apply to new power plants seeking site certification or an order of approval after July 1, 2004, and existing plants that increase the production of CO2 emissions by 15 percent. For more information click here
Wisconsin SB 432 would create a sales tax and use tax exemption for motor vehicles, licensed for highway use, that use any of the following as a fuel: a mixture consisting of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, 95 percent ethanol and 5 percent gasoline, or 85 percent methanol and 15 percent gasoline; electricity; compressed natural gas; or propane. For more information click here |
ENERGY EFFICIENCY A MAJOR COMPONENT OF NEW ENERGY PLANS IN 2 STATESTwo new bright spots exist in the patchwork quilt of laws, regulations and initiatives that is energy policy at the state level in this country. Florida and North Carolina have just issued new State Energy Plans, and both have included energy efficiency measures as a major component of those plans.
A new State Energy Plan was released in Florida in January 2004. Its release follows a stakeholder and public input process that began in July 2003. Action is already being taken on the report's recommendations to support and expand energy efficiency initiatives: • Senate Bill 2175 Establishing Energy Efficiency Standards was filed in February and would apply to appliances and other energy-using technologies. • Also the Florida Energy Plan recommends increasing stringency in each building code cycle and paying closer attention to code enforcement. A draft of the 2004 Florida Building Code was posted in February. Florida 's State Energy Plan also targets energy use in state facilities and recommends a state energy management program modeled after the Federal Energy Management Program (for more information on FEMP, please click here The Florida Energy Plan can be accessed by clicking here
North Carolina last issued a State Energy Plan in 1992. Recognizing the need for an updated plan, the state initiated an extensive stakeholder and public input process that led to a new plan being released in 2003. North Carolina 's draft energy plan was presented to the NC Energy Policy Council (established by the General Assembly in 1975) in January 2003. Ninety-three measures were approved and set forth in the State Energy Plan released in June 2003. Of those 93 approved measures, 15 key policies were identified for action in 2003-2004. Those 15 priority measures are focused on promoting energy efficiency and alternative fuel use: • For example, a goal has been set for state agencies and universities to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings 20% by 2008. • The new State Energy Plan also directs the General Assembly to consider the establishment of a Public Benefits Fund (PBF) to enable funding of State Energy Office activities and recommendations for energy efficiency initiatives set out in the updated plan. The North Carolina Energy Plan can be accessed by clicking here Congratulations to these two states for their efforts! Fewer than half of the states have official energy plans. (See Grady, Dennis, Appalachian State University, December 19, 2001 click here to read the report) May Florida and North Carolina energy efficiency initiatives flourish and lead by example to many more bright spots in the national quilt of state energy policy. Kate Offringa
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Andrew deLaski A picture is worth a thousand words and one of the most telling pictures in the energy efficiency business shows the decline in refrigerator energy use over the past thirty years. The picture that tells this story – David Goldstein of NRDC developed the version reproduced here and last year won a MacArthur Foundation “genius award” for his part in advancing refrigerator efficiency – shows how the average new refrigerator today uses about 25% as much energy as a typical early 1970s unit, yet is bigger and, in real dollars, much cheaper. click here to view larger image State policy makers' crucial role in the refrigerator story is sometimes forgotten. California and New York set the nation's first appliance efficiency standards in the 1970s. Then, when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) took a pass on its legal responsibility to set minimum energy efficiency standards in the 1980s, the states stepped into the breech. California upgraded its then-existing refrigerator standard and New York, Florida and Massachusetts joined in with their own state refrigerator standards. It was the states that thus reversed a twenty-five year trend toward ever more energy-hungry refrigerators. Now, after a decade-long pause during which states were content to leave efficiency standards policy up to the federal government, states are once again looking to wield energy efficiency standards as one of their most effective tools to rein in energy demand growth. California led the way by updating its Title 20 appliance standards with ten new product efficiency standards in early 2002. For California these new standards will reduce electricity demand growth by 134 megawatts per year and annual growth in consumption by 2,000 gigawatt hours. In January, the Maryland Legislature made that state the second to establish a broad set of new product efficiency standards. Maryland's new standards will net consumers and businesses about $600 million in savings by 2020 while cutting power sector emissions of carbon, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants. Similar legislation is now pending in several states including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Illinois. In Florida, advocates armed with a Florida State University study showing that improving energy efficiency would create tens of thousands of jobs in the state, have recently appealed Governor Jeb Bush's denial of their request to consider new state efficiency standards. While states are advancing their own energy efficiency standards, DOE's work to upgrade existing national standards has all but stalled. For example, upgrades for the residential furnace and boiler and commercial air conditioner standards and an initial distribution transformer standard have been designated as “high priorities” by DOE for three years running, but the agency has yet to issue even initial proposals. The legal deadline for the furnace upgrade was 1994; the deadline for transformers was 1996. Some state policy makers are beginning to question how they can fill the void. For example, California set standards for both commercial air conditioners and residential air conditioners in 2002 that go beyond the outdated federal minimums. Because these are federally-regulated products, the state must now petition DOE for permission to enforce its tougher state level standards. Others are beginning to look at how they might use building code requirements to step in where DOE has failed to act. On another front, state policy makers recently helped to prevent backsliding on the national residential central air conditioner standard (the “SEER 13” standard). Ten states joined NRDC along with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), Consumer Federation of America, low-income energy advocates and a major utility to challenge U.S. DOE's attempt to lower the standard. In January, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the plaintiffs, nullifying the administration's efforts to weaken this crucial energy efficiency standard. Relative to the weaker standard sought by the Bush administration, keeping the SEER 13 standard will eliminate the need for nearly 50 power plants at 300 megawatts each by 2020. At its heart, the refrigerator picture tells a story of technological advances and the role of efficiency standards in encouraging, spreading and locking in those advances. As new energy using technologies proliferate and technical advances lower the energy use of existing appliances and equipment, it's a safe bet that state policy makers will be at the forefront of making sure that common sense minimum standards keep pace.
For more information visit the Appliance Standards Awareness Project by clicking here |
The Responsible Energy Codes Alliance (RECA) continues its work to promote adoption of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). In February, RECA and its members were active in Arizona and Illinois. States to watch for code developments in the month ahead are Utah and Washington. Click here to visit the RECA website for more information.
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Advancing Energy Efficiency Appliance Standards
Building Codes Assistance Project (BCAP), a joint initiative of the Alliance to Save Energy, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and National Resources Defense Council, is dedicated to assisting states in the development and implementation of statewide building energy codes. For more information This page was updated
July 29, 2004
The Alliance to Save Energy
1200 18th Street, NW, Suite 900
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Phone: 202/857-0666 Fax: 202/331-9588
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