Happy Energy Efficiency Day! Here at the Beyond Coal Campaign, our work to move the nation to clean energy includes a big focus on helping Americans save energy. One of the most underestimated and underutilized ways to save money and electricity is energy efficiency, but the reality is that efficiency is growing in a big way: The average American family had $840 extra to spend last year because of energy efficiency! That kind of savings means a lot in my household, and I bet it does in yours, too. Today as we join more than 100 organizations across the country to celebrate the first ever Energy Efficiency Day (@EEDay2016) -- October 5, 2016 -- this post highlights some of the Beyond Coal Campaign’s biggest energy efficiency success stories.
Since 1990, saving energy through investment in more efficient lighting, appliances, and other technologies has met 18 percent of our electricity needs. That innovation has avoided the need for 313 new power plants, reducing climate-disrupting carbon pollution by 490 million tons in 2015.
Over the last few years we’ve grown our economy and created millions of new jobs without needing to generate more electricity, because we’re wasting a lot less energy in our homes and businesses thanks to all sorts of conservation measures and new innovations. In fact, as my colleague Ivy Main recently explained on her blog, as we’ve secured the retirement of 45% of the nation’s coal plants, the biggest “fuel” that’s replacing that power and driving down climate polluting carbon emissions has been energy efficiency! That plus the addition of clean, renewable energy means air pollution -- not just carbon, but also dangerous pollution like mercury, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides -- has plummeted.
For the last 15 years the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign has worked closely with our partners to achieve some of the money-saving and life-saving policies that have led to that remarkable accomplishment. To celebrate, let’s take a look back at some of those energy efficiency victories from just the last four years.
In 2012 the Sierra Club and half a dozen other groups actively defended Pennsylvania’s landmark energy savings law, Act 129, as the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission determined the second phase of the program, Energy efficiency programs under that phase ultimately delivered more than $1.1 billion in benefits and reduced carbon pollution by 1,754,473 tons. We were back at the Commission last year to help support a powerful third phase through 2020, which is projected to deliver an additional $1.5 billion in benefits for households in the state.
In 2013 we reached a settlement with Kentucky Power to replace the Big Sandy coal plant and more than double the company’s investment in energy efficiency, from $3 million that year to $6 million in 2016 and every year thereafter. We helped reach a similar agreement in West Virginia that more than doubled First Energy’s energy saving achievements: they proposed to spend $9.9 million on efficiency through 2017 and into 2018 as a result.
In May 2014, the Beyond Coal Campaign joined members of the League of Women Voters, Black Men United, Malcolm X Foundation, Nebraska Interfaith Power & Light, Omaha Together One Community, Nebraska Wildlife Federation, Nebraska Farmers Union, and dozens of community leaders to pack the room during a meeting of the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD). Together we called for replacing a coal plant in North Omaha with energy efficiency and clean energy. The following month OPPD delivered, voting to replace the coal plant with 300 megawatts of energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy, without raising electric bills. Thanks efficiency!
Just a few months later in August 2014, after a five-year-long campaign with dozens of other groups, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power voted to increase their ten year efficiency target by 50 percent, requiring investment of a billion dollars to reach more than two percent annual savings each year. Los Angeles followed that act just a few weeks ago by committing to reach 100 percent clean energy.
And in 2015 we helped spur the Maryland Public Service Commission to set similar ambitious targets for the state’s electric companies to help customers save more than two percent of their energy each year through the EmPower Maryland efficiency programs.
From coast to coast, from the Heartland to my home in Appalachia, together we’re helping people save energy, save money, and save lives. By 2030 we can more than double those savings, making efficiency the single most important energy resource we have. That’s certainly worth a national day of celebration. Join us in celebrating Energy Efficiency Day by sharing this post, and spreading the word about @EEDay2016 (hashtag #eeday2016!) on social media.