Washington, D.C., November 5, 2009 – The Alliance to Save Energy today praised the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's passage of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) as a major step toward enacting a carbon emission reduction target that would boost energy efficiency – one of the most effective and immediate cost containment tools for implementing a cap and trade system – across all energy end-use sectors in the U.S. economy.

“This bill sure takes a licking, but it just keeps on ticking,” said Alliance Senior Vice President of Policy Joe Loper. “Today's committee action is a major step toward enactment of legislation that would cap carbon emissions and address their cost to society.”

The bill would stimulate major investments in energy efficiency by incorporating into the price of energy the large social cost of emissions. Advancing energy efficiency would reduce the amount of energy used in the U.S. and the resulting amount of carbon created, thus ultimately lowering the cost of complying with an emissions cap, the Alliance said.

“We simply must have this bill if we are to harness the power of energy efficiency to reduce global warming. We can avoid breaking our climate without breaking the bank by harnessing the cost-effective benefits of energy efficiency,” Loper said.

“We hope that this important step forward will be an impetus to action for the several other Senate committees that will take up climate legislation before a bill reaches the Senate floor,” Loper continued.

“But we do recognize that the task of getting a climate bill enacted will require bipartisan cooperation, and so we urge the full Senate to cast aside partisan acrimony and move towards agreement on vital legislation that will help create clean energy jobs and restore American competitiveness in the manufacture of energy efficiency and renewable energy products,” Loper noted. “We hope that increasing energy efficiency is an area where members of both parties can find common ground.”