By Nathan Willcox & Ted Erickson
Everywhere we look these days, energy issues are making news. If it’s the gas prices Pennsylvanians are enduring at the pump, concerns about global warming pollution, or warnings about spikes in electricity bills once utility rate caps are removed, it has become clear that the way we use and produce energy impacts Pennsylvania in many ways.
Inevitably, discussions around energy return to two questions: How do we make it cheaper? How do we make it cleaner?
One key answer to both of these questions is energy efficiency. That’s because we’ve known for years that the cleanest and cheapest type of energy is the energy that is never produced in the first place. In other words, if we cut our energy demand, we reap the environmental and economic benefits of power plants not having to produce as much electricity, and new power plants not being necessary.
From the environmental perspective, energy efficiency is a clear winner. By cutting our energy use and reducing demand on the state’s coal-fired power plants, we ensure that less air pollution and global warming emissions are created. Pennsylvania creates more global warming pollution than all but two other states, and therefore using energy efficiency to cut this pollution is clearly a much-needed step in the right direction.
From an economic perspective, energy efficiency is also a no-brainer. The simple truth is that our thirst for energy is growing at an unsustainable rate. And unless we find a way to reign in this energy demand, we will have to build new power plants.
New power plants cost money — lots of money. Furthermore, the costs for these new plants will inevitably be passed along to Pennsylvania businesses and consumers. But, if we aggressively promote energy efficiency measures throughout the commonwealth, we can avoid the need for these new plants and their enormous price tag. Because of the many advantages of energy efficiency, PennEnvironment’s Energy Efficient Pennsylvania project is working to cut energy use in Pennsylvania by 10 percent by 2025.
This is an aggressive but doable target, and achieving it would reap huge rewards for Pennsylvania’s environment and economy.
There are many ways in which we can make this goal a reality, from making more of our homes and office buildings “green”, to making our household products and appliances more energy- efficient.
For too long, Pennsylvania has failed to seize the promise of energy efficiency. For instance, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy gave Pennsylvania a score of only 16 out of a possible 44 in 2007 for the commonwealth’s energy efficiency efforts.
Other states that have taken the lead in energy-efficiency efforts are already reaping the benefits. One example is California, where aggressive efforts to promote energy efficiency resulted in residential energy use declining by more than 40 percent per capita between the mid-1970s and 2002 (the national average was a 16 percent decrease).
Together, we’re working to bring similar benefits to Pennsylvania. As a critical first step, we are supporting legislation in Harrisburg which would cut projected energy use 2.5 percent in the next five years, and cut peak demand — or the highest 100 hours of energy use annually — by 4 percent in the next four years.
This modest cut in the state’s energy usage would result in 7.4 million fewer tons of global warming pollution being created in Pennsylvania than is projected — the equivalent of removing over 1.3 million cars from the road for a year. It will also to help to protect Pennsylvania homeowners and businesses from rising electricity bills.
Enacting aggressive energy-efficiency legislation will be a first step towards making Pennsylvania a national leader in cutting energy use — for the benefit of the state’s environment and our economy.
Nathan Willcox is an energy and clean-air advocate for PennEnvionment. State Sen. Ted Erickson of Newtown is a Republican representing the 26th District.
