Washington, D.C., October 7, 2005 – With the nation struggling to recover from two devastating hurricanes, in the midst of record-high gas prices, and facing skyrocketing heating costs this winter, the House of Representatives has passed an energy bill that provides no relief, the Alliance to Save Energy said today.

“The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s ‘Gasoline for America’s Security Act of 2005’ relies far too heavily on the long-term approach of increasing energy supplies,” said Alliance President Kateri Callahan. “At the same time, the bill does little to tap the vast potential of energy efficiency to reduce demand in the short run and thereby provide much more immediate relief to Americans hard-pressed by spiraling energy costs.

“It’s all well and good to encourage carpooling and vanpooling and provide public education,” Callahan added, “but the bill misses an important opportunity to harness the power of energy efficiency technologies to do much more – and much more quickly – to ease the upward pressure on energy prices by reducing energy use.”

The Alliance to Save Energy continues to recommend increases and reforms to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements, and/or exploring market-based replacements to CAFE like a feebate, as the number one way to lower consumer spending at the pump and wean America off its oil addition. Other policy recommendations can be found at www.ase.org.