A STATEMENT FROM ALLIANCE TO SAVE ENERGY PRESIDENT KATERI CALLAHAN

“Through its fundamental commitment to flexibility, local choice, and cost-effectiveness, the Clean Power Plan sets the stage for a market-based transformation of the U.S. power sector that promises to help secure the nation’s prosperity for decades to come. In this competition of technologies and ideas as well as dollars and cents, energy efficiency has a remarkable opportunity to demonstrate its superior value proposition as the cheapest, cleanest, quickest, and most reliable way to reduce CO₂ emissions and tackle climate change, while also creating skilled jobs and empowering everyday Americans to make their own energy decisions.

“The cheapest energy is the energy you don’t have to produce in the first place, with recent studies showing that saving a unit of power costs two to three times less than generating it by traditional or non-traditional means. Energy efficiency is also the fastest route to reduced emissions, with programs that can be up and running within 12-14 months, long before the typical new power plant has run the course from approval to construction. Measured in terms of risk, efficiency shines again, offering an unsurpassed combination of relatively low upfront investment costs that can be diversified across a portfolio of independent solutions (including but by no means limited to building energy codes, appliance standards and utility-managed programs). By virtue of that same diversity, efficiency provides a broad range of options well suited to meet the varied needs of America’s consumers and businesses.

“President Obama has shown in word and deed over the past six years that he understands the compelling case for energy efficiency. He has called on the country to double its energy productivity, established two sets of rigorous goals for federal agencies to reduce energy waste, and overseen the greatest investment in energy efficiency ever made by the government. In light of this record, it comes as no surprise that his Clean Power Plan will put efficiency to the test, state by state, in the search for the best solutions to America’s electricity needs. Americans know good value when they see it; we at the Alliance to Save Energy applaud the President for continuing to ensure that the American public gets the facts about energy efficiency’s ability to create a more robust economy, improved environment and greater energy security.

“There may be much idle talk in coming days about why efficiency is not on the final roster of building blocks for the determination of state goals. But efficiency is about results, not distractions. Regardless of how stringent goals to reduce bulk greenhouse gases from power plants are determined, energy efficiency remains the cheapest, fastest, fairest and most reliable set of compliance mechanisms. And that’s something America can really ‘build’ on.”