Energy Efficiency in the South: Economic and Environmental Opportunities

Energy Efficiency in the South analyzed the impacts of nine policies, including residential building codes and weatherization assistance, appliance and equipment standards, building retrofit incentives, and combined heat and power incentives, among others. The South was defined to include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. The region accounts for 36 percent of the country’s population and 44 percent of the nation’s energy use. It is the fastest growing region and has the greatest dependence on fossil fuels for electricity generation in the nation.

On April 14, 2010, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing on opportunities to improve energy efficiency in the South, and the potential impacts on energy prices, job creation, water use, and carbon emissions. The briefing focused on the results of a new study by researchers at Georgia Tech and Duke University.

• Aggressive adoption of energy efficiency programs in the South would lower utility bills by $41 billion, create 380,000 new jobs, reduce new power plant construction and save 8.6 billion gallons of freshwater between now and 2020. Dr. Marilyn Brown, co-lead researcher of the study, said energy efficiency “could be an economic windfall for the South.”
• The South is the largest and fastest growing region in the United States, accounting for 36 percent of the population, 44 percent of energy consumption, and 48 percent of energy production.
• Three times as many jobs will come from energy efficiency efforts than from producing more electricity, the findings show. Annual job growth in the South would increase by 520,000 new jobs in 2030 with the adoption of efficiency programs.
• Over the next 20 years, the South can have a net “no new growth” in energy use and save billions of dollars from power plants that need not be built. Without efficiency initiatives, energy consumption will grow by about 16 percent by 2030.
• The study used a model that considered energy efficiency policies both with and without a price placed on carbon. Where a carbon price was used, it set a price of $15 per ton in 2010, gradually rising to $50 per ton in 2030.
• The study includes an appendix that provides a state by state analysis of the effects of energy efficiency programs.
• Aggressive adoption of energy efficiency programs in Texas would lower utility bills by $13.7 billion and create 96,300 new jobs by 2020. Avoided annual electricity consumption is equal to the amount of electricity produced by 17 power plants in 2020.