Hill Heat

Energy Conservation

Growing certainty that the burning of fossil fuels is warming the Earth’s atmosphere has spawned proposals from governments and industry to conserve energy. The Senate legislation would save 88 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, according to a Bingaman statement, or enough to power more than 11 million homes.

Greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 500 million tons annually, or 1.5 percent, by replacing incandescent light bulbs worldwide, Paul Waide, a policy analyst at the International Energy Agency, said at the Senate hearing. He said that would be the equivalent of “installing 100 times current U.S. wind generation capacity in lieu of unsequestered coal-fired power plants.”

Replacing Bulbs

Under the Senate proposal, beginning in 2012 and continuing through 2014, the current 40-watt, 60-watt, 75-watt and 100-watt incandescent bulbs, which now number 4 billion in U.S. homes and businesses, will be replaced by lower wattage bulbs that produce equivalent amounts of light. Bingaman’s bill would allow for a reevaluation of how to raise standards in 2020.

The House bill requires existing wattage lights to be brighter, which industry and environmental groups say will lead to more efficiency, although not necessarily to energy savings. The House measure then requires efficiency gains by 2020 that industry says are untenable.

The House plan would raise lighting efficiency by about 30 percent by 2014 and by 75 percent by 2020.

“If it stays the way it is now, as far as we know now, it is basically a CFL standard,” Earl Jones, senior counsel for the consumer and industrial division of GE, said of the House bill. He said new technology could develop, however Congress should not lock in an approach now to be mandated in 2020.

GE, Siemens’ Osram-Sylvania and Philips are planning different kinds of new products that would not meet the House’s long-range standards.

‘Tough’ Standards

Representative Jane Harman, a chief sponsor of the House bill, said the two bills were not all that far apart and she would compromise on how savings are measured. She would not support a less stringent bill.

“The standards are going to stay tough,” the California Democrat said in an interview after testifying at the hearing. “We are not watering down savings.”

Harman wants states to be able to preempt the federal standard until 2020. Bingaman wants no state preemption. Harman said that issue would not lead to the measure’s downfall.

Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, who testified at the hearing, said the Senate bill will save a little more energy than the House bill through 2020, and a little less than the House bill through 2030.

Nadel said the Senate bill should be toughened in ways industry does not support. For example efficiency groups want lawmakers to close loopholes that would allow less efficient lighting products to be exempted from the rules.

“I could think of a dozen ways that I could evade these standards without any trouble,” Nadel said of loopholes in the Bingaman bill.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Whitten in Washington at [email protected]

Congressman Fred Upton (R – St. Joseph) testified this morning before the U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee on his bipartisan amendment to transform the country’s lighting industry from obsolete, inefficient incandescent light bulbs toward higher-efficiency standards. Upton, a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and California Democrat Jane Harman are leading the effort to promote energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Both Upton and Harman testified during the hearing to examine “Energy Efficiency Standards for Incandescent Lamps.” Upton’s bipartisan amendment, supported by both environmental and industry groups, was included in a broad energy package that passed the U.S. House in early August.

“We must examine other solutions in addition to conservation as energy consumption across the globe is expected to increase approximately 50 percent by 2030,” said Upton. “Current incandescent bulbs on store shelves are obsolete and highly inefficient – only 10 percent of the energy consumed by each bulb is for light with 90 percent wasted on unnecessary heat. With more efficient bulbs, we will dramatically lower our energy use, reducing greenhouse gases as well as saving American families billions of dollars in their electric bills – and the benefits will be as easy as a flip of the switch. Every home will be on the front lines in the effort to reduce pollution and save energy, and we will be successful one light bulb at a time. I am confident that the Senate will embrace our common sense, bipartisan approach that partners with American industry to substantially reduce pollution.”

Across the nation, the environmental and economic benefits of more efficient bulbs will be substantial.

High efficiency bulbs will result in the:

• Reduction in electricity demand equal to the output of 23 nuclear plants;
• Reduction of airborne mercury emissions from coal burning plants – 4,500 lbs;
• Reduction in annual Carbon Dioxide emissions – 120 million tons; and
• $14 billion in reduced electricity costs for consumers.

The amendment sets technology-neutral performance standards to replace today’s inefficient 100 watt, 75 watt, 60 watt and 40 watt incandescent lights with a mix of products (halogen, compact fluorescent, high-efficiency incandescent, and LED’s) that will result in efficiency gains exceeding 50%. Starting in July 2012 , the 100 watt incandescent will be completely phased out, with the 75, 60 and 40 watt bulbs phased out for more efficient bulbs in 2014, 2015 and 2018 respectively. The transition will result in the annual phasing-out of the production of 2 billion inefficient incandescent bulbs. Upton and Harman worked very closely with industry and environmentalists to craft common sense legislation that seeks to clean up the environment, all the while protecting American jobs.

Upton and Harman are also leading the effort to require that each agency, department, and office within the Federal Government, beginning Oct. 1, 2007, purchase light bulbs that meet the Department of Energy’s “Energy Star” efficiency ratings. Their bipartisan amendment has been included in every spending bill that has passed the House.