August 4, 2004—”After delays of up to 12 years, the Alliance to Save Energy is pleased that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has begun the formal process for issuing energy-efficiency standards for major residential and commercial appliances and equipment,” said Alliance President Kateri Callahan about the recent Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANOPR).
“The wasted energy and money and the unnecessary environmental degradation during the years of delay cannot be recouped,” Callahan noted, “and until the new rules go into effect in 2009 or 2010, inefficient equipment that can last for 20 to 30 years will be sold and installed in homes and businesses.”
The ANOPR for residential furnaces and boilers, commercial air conditioners and heat pumps, and electric distribution transformers comes just a week after two U.S. senators—Government Affairs Committee Chair Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ranking Member Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT)—sent a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham sharply criticizing the department’s foot-dragging and quantifying the eventual energy savings from the new standards.
After multiple postponements, the recent ANOPR means DOE should soon publish proposed regulations setting minimum energy-efficiency standards for the three categories of equipment.
“The amount of electricity saved with these critical standards will be enough to meet the annual needs of about six million typical American households, and the natural gas savings will be enough to heat one out of every 10 U.S. households that uses natural gas heat,” said Sen. Collins, also a vice-chair of the Alliance. “We cannot delay any longer.”
For more information, contact The Alliance to Save Energy.
