President Orders New Efficiency Standards for Appliances

On February 5, President Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum requesting the Department of Energy (DOE) to set efficiency standards for common appliances including residential dishwashers, lamps, ovens, microwaves, commercial air conditioners, commercial boilers and vending machines. “This will save consumers money, this will spur innovation, and this will conserve tremendous amounts of energy,” President Obama said, adding that the energy saved over the next 30 years is equivalent to the amount of energy produced in two years by all the nation’s coal-fired power plants. DOE efficiency standards already exist for several other categories of appliances.

Energy efficiency was the focus of an EESI briefing on Capitol Hill on February 5 as well, where speakers from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and the American Physical Society (APS) highlighted its current and potential benefits to the American economy. Improvements in efficiency have saved the United States $1 trillion in energy costs since 1970 and have been shown to be a low-risk, high-return investment.

Click here to read the Presidential Memorandum.
Click here for more information on existing DOE appliance standards.
Click here for more information from EESI’s briefing.