The Energy Foundation will support policies to increase the efficiency of U.S. homes and businesses, reducing global-warming emissions and saving consumer dollars.

Buildings account for about one-third of U.S. energy use. New technologies make efficiency opportunities in this sector particularly compelling. Compact fluorescents, now available in every size and shape, produce the same light output with one-third of the energy use. Efficient windows with special coatings let in light, but not summer heat, reducing air conditioning costs. Refrigerators today are larger, have more features, but use one-third of the energy of 1970s models.

Appliance efficiency standards offer large carbon reductions at low cost. Existing national standards will reduce U.S. electricity use by 8 percent in 2020 (helping us avoid constructing 400 fossil-fuel power plants), and save $186 billion through 2030. But the Department of Energy is late in setting many new standards. Setting these standards could reduce energy by the equivalent of 50 medium-sized power plants in 2020, and save $20 billion per year by 2030, with a benefit-to-cost ratio of 7-to-1. Moreover, full implementation of standards recently adoped by Congress and states will multiply these savings several times over.

Numerous states still lack basic codes to require homes and office buildings to ensure quality construction, avoid unnecessary energy waste, and cut air pollution. Advanced model codes, such as the International Energy Conservation Code 2003, save consumers money by raising average building efficiency by 20 percent over 1995 levels. Other voluntary tools, such as advanced-building guidelines, can cut energy use 30 to 50 percent and build markets for superior technologies. Appliance standards and building codes are cost-effective, near-term means to avoid power crises and simultaneously advance the United States as a global leader in advanced technologies.

The foundation is particularly interested in efforts to:

• Establish stringent state and national appliance and equipment standards; and
• Create public policy incentives that pull super-efficient appliances and equipment into the market and result in buildings that surpass model energy codes by 30-50 percent.