US could cut energy use by 10% by 2020

Planned federal energy efficiencies could cut the US's energy consumption by 10% by 2020, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.


The council says US energy use could be reduced by 10.6quadrillion Btus, about 10% of projected energy use in 2020.

These energy efficiency savings are more than the entire current energy use of the state of California, and are larger than the annual energy use of 49 of the 50 states.

These savings are more than triple those of 2005 energy legislation and about double those of 2007 energy legislation, and in turn will avoid about 661m metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 – the equivalent of taking 110m cars off the road for a year.

Steven Nadel, ACEEE’s executive director, said: “These energy efficiency savings are very substantial and will go a long way towards paying the cost of the cap-and-trade program in the bill.

“Our analyses indicates energy efficiency policies are a key cost-control element for climate change legislation because the less energy we need, the fewer new power plants we need, and the fewer existing power plants that need to be upgraded.”

Luke Walsh

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