Driving Home Efficiency

hybrid rally richmond

This past Saturday I joined a dozen other hybrid owners on a gorgeous spring day to… Circle the Capitol in Richmond! Yes, you read that correctly, I woke up early and covered my friend’s Toyota Prius in streamers and balloons and battled downtown Richmond traffic and construction on Broad Street. I did this to send a message that was loud (horns were honked) and clear (in bold font across the side of each of our fuel efficient vehicles). We support Governor Kaine amending legislation that made it through the general assembly session to include the 19% efficiency target that his own Commission on Climate Change recommended this past fall.

19 percent standard

Energy efficiency is the cleanest, quickest and cheapest way to meet Virginia’s energy needs. With federal legislation in the works to regulate carbon to stave off the most devastating effects of climate change, the Commonwealth can’t afford to miss this opportunity. Energy efficiency equals tens of thousands of jobs for our state, how much longer do we plan to wait?

hybrid rally crowd

Take Action: Investments in Efficiency Targeted for Cuts

A couple years ago, the Maryland legislature passed this sweet bill called the Healthy Air Act to clean up our dirty electricity generation. Part of what made the bill so excellent was that it mandated that MD join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (fondly known as RGGI, and pronounced ReGGIe, like the name), the first ever carbon cap program in the United States.

Now that the pollution permit auctions are starting to happen, and the dollars are rolling in, we’re running into some trouble. Last year, the MD General Assembly passed a law stating that the revenues from RGGI would be divided between energy efficiency programs and low-income ratepayer relief. Now that there are budget shortfalls left and right, the RGGI funds – specifically the part that has been set aside for investments in energy-efficiency programs – are being raided. Most of the money is being transferred into additional rate-relief programs.

So why are we worried? With electricity bills on the rise, the threat of global warming, and the economic crisis we’re dealing with, energy efficiency is the clear solution to helping us use less energy, lower our bills, AND do good for the environment at the same time. Funding efficiency programs will lower bills for ratepayers. Permanently.

Oh, and this will also create green jobs – doing things like this:

We can help people pay their bills and lower their bills at the same time, but only if we stick to the plan set forth by the general assembly last year.

Want to take action? If your Senator serves on the Budget Committee, or your Delegate serves on the Appropriations committee, they need to hear from you TODAY. The committees will take up this question in the budget early next week, so it’s important that they hear from as many of their constituents as possible telling them not to steal $70 million from energy efficiency, so take a minute to take action. (don’t know who your Senator/Delegate is? find out here!) Seriously. Take action now!

One Tiny Step Forward, Two Giant Steps Back

cars
Yesterday Gov. Kaine applauded Virginia’s electrical co-ops for donating energy efficient lights to Virginia State Parks, hailing it as “a major step forward” for Virginia.

It’s great that Virginia is taking strides to be more energy efficient. Considering Virginia spent just $84,000 statewide on efficiency measures in 2006, compared with $400,000 in Alabama and Mississippi and $3.8 billion in North Carolina, we certainly need to be stepping up our commitment to efficiency.

It’s also great that this is a “major step.” What exactly does that mean? Continue reading

Efficiency bills, explained

There are a lot of efficiency bills being considered by the VA GA this session. Here’s a breakdown of what’s good and what’s not:

Good:

Strong efficiency legislation must: 1) Be mandatory; 2) Reduce the total amount of energy consumed; and 3) Must reward utilities for investments in efficiency by offering them the same rate of return on their investment – no matter if they’re investing in efficiency or new generation.

The following bills include all or part of a strong energy efficiency legislation 

Bad

The following so-called “efficiency” legislation would actually roll back efficiency measures and make it easier to pollute our air:

Fact Sheets and Resources

Tax Holiday this weekend for Energy Star products

energy starOn the heels of the recent report released by ACEEE that shows that Virginians can reduce electricity demands by 20% in 20 years through efficiency measures, Gov Kaine has announced Virginia’s second annual sales tax holiday on energy efficient products. On Friday and Saturday of this week, Virginians will be exempt from paying sales tax on ENERGY STAR and WaterSense qualified products that cost $2,500 or less.

According to the ACEEE report, all of Virginia’s neighbors besides West Virginia rank higher in energy efficiency investments. Maryland, North Carolina and Washington DC all edge out Virginia, which is currently ranked at 32nd. As one of the most highly educated and wealthiest states in the nation, Virginia can do better. ACEEE recommends that Virginia enact strong policies that set strong targets, reduce peak demand and incentivize efficiency. Policies that have already been tested and proven in states like California, Oregon and Connecticut.

Instead, Virginia is building new, controversial and expensive coal plants like the one in Wise County. While Dominion has already asked for an 18% rate increase this year

Getting to Energy Smart: Calculating the Financial Benefits of Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs): the condo case

We have all become armored against advertising and the claims of “save $26” (or more) on a CFL package are hard to believe. In addition, in our culture, we focus on the cost to buy (CTB) rather than the cost to own (CTO). Thus, in a weird perversion of Benjamin Franklin, we focus on the $0.99 purchase price rather than the cost through the years that we might use something. These factors combine to make it difficult for most Americans to pursue energy efficiency choices, such as CFLs.

This reality of condominium structures worsens this situation. With shared utility costs (electricity, water, gas), but individual owners controlling purchases within their own units, it is hard to capture savings opportunities. This is an example of a very common Catch-22, where the person “buying” something doesn’t directly pay for the “cost” of running it. It is time to break through the Catch-22 and arrive at sensible solutions, to work for real solutions to real problems.
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Independent study shows that Virginia can provide for its energy needs to 2025 without building new coal plants

Press Statement
September 19, 2008

Sarah Rispin Staff Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center, 434-977-4090
Kayti Wingfield Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter, 540-470-0643
Tom Cormons Appalachian Voices, 301-910-8973

Richmond, Va. – The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) submitted a report today to Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, following months of analysis, showing that energy efficiency is a cheap, accessible and low-impact way to provide for the lion’s share of the growth in Virginia’s projected energy use through 2025. The report says that, even taking policy constraints into account, and rolling out less than half of the energy-efficiency measures that are cost-effective given current electricity rates, Virginia can achieve almost 28 million kilowatt hours (kWh) in energy savings by 2025. At the same time, such a program would save ratepayers $15 billion in energy bills, pump $11 billion in investments into the Virginia economy, and create over 9,800 jobs in the state. This is more than double the rate of savings that Virginia’s 2007 electric utility restructuring legislation recommends.

Wise Energy for Virginia lauds the report, which shows clearly that energy efficiency

Fuel efficiency. You know, for kids!

Fun fact: by the time Bush’s proposed increases in drilling have one cent of effect on American gas prices the average family will have spent over $57,000 on gas.

So if you needed any more convincing on why the proposed drilling is a gadawful idea for a solution, you can chew on that little gem.

Maybe instead of pumping oil from under the sea we should tap into the potential of technology we already have, by, say, raising the minimum standards for fuel efficiency. If the average family has 2 cars, they probably are due to replace one of them in the next few years. And if that new car gets 50 miles to the gallon (attainable!), which is roughly double the current average MPG, they save 50% on fuel costs for that car. With an average fuel consumption of 678 gallons per year (according to the US Bureau of Labor and Stats), and with gas at $4 a gallon, over 5 years that bump in fuel efficiency will save that family about $6800. Hooray! Johnny gets a new saxophone! Little Margie can get braces! Sammy’s going to summer camp!

And the $6800 savings is over just 5 years, with one car. Bush’s drilling isn’t supposed to make a difference for 10-15 years or so. If we raise mileage standards next year families that buy new cars can start saving even sooner, bringing the savings during the drilling lag even higher. The sooner we convert the fleet to higher fuel efficiency vehicles the sooner we can start actually helping ease the burden of gas prices. Oh, btw, a rise in minimum fuel efficiency really helps slow global warming.

Va. Energy: Questions to Ask Before Construction

Today is the last day for placing questions and comments before the Virginia State Corporation Commission (VSCC) (comments) about two major issues from Dominion Virginia Power.

  1. Wise County coal-fired power plant (application, 14 page pdf) PUE-2007-0066

  2. A 500 kV transmission line to bring coal electricity to Northern Virginia from Ohio (application, 29 page pdf) PUE-2007-00033

CCAN has had excellent discussion and impassioned calls on the first, the UNWise County coal-fired plant. And again, since today is THE LAST DAY to submit your comments against the Wise County coal plant, please take a moment to do so>>

Now let’s turn to the Power Line question. Quite simply, there has been no efficiency focus in the power line debate, with too much NIMBYite focus. Public officials, before rushing forward with approval of Dominion’s proposal, should ask the questions that follow and consider potential responses.

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Forget the light bulbs: Part II

Tidwell responds to scientists responding to Tidwell

The essay below is a response to “The Power of Voluntary Actions,” written by a phalanx of social scientists, which was itself a response to Tidwell’s “Consider Using the N-Word Less.” It ran on Grist on September 21st.

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My Sept. 4 essay on the merits of voluntary versus statutory responses to global warming triggered quite a firestorm of debate. Lots of readers agreed with me: All those happy lists in magazines and on web sites — “10 things you can do to save the planet!” — actually trivialize the scale of the problem. We’ll never solve the climate crisis one light bulb at a time. What we need, Continue reading