Study: Energy efficiency could boost South

Study: Energy efficiency could boost South

The Houston Chronicle, Aug. 24, 2009, 2:29PM, By GREG BLUESTEIN, AP

Advocates are taking the study, funded by the Energy Foundation and the Turner Foundation, to state legislators and regulatory agencies hoping it will bolster their calls for more incentives for energy efficient products as an alternative to new power plants.

"We're not saying that new plants aren't needed, because new plants can replace old clunkers that need to be replaced," said Marilyn Brown, a Georgia Tech professor who co-authored the report.

"But we don't need to build for an expanded demand if the Southern states would begin to launch energy efficient programs."

The study distilled 19 separate reports published across the region over the past 12 years. It found that better use of energy-efficient products could bring consumption 9 percent below the levels now projected for 2020.

It found that the South has been one of the last regions in the country to embrace energy efficiency programs and to foster a culture where consumers value energy efficiency.

It also found the South — which it defines as a 16-state area that extends from Texas to Maryland — accounts for 44 percent of the nation's total energy consumption. That's significantly more than the region's population share, which hovers around 37 percent.

The brunt of the energy efficiency upgrades would take place in the private sector. It advocates homeowners and contractors to install heat pumps along with efficient window treatments and insulation.

It urges the commercial sector to embrace new lighting standards and more efficient cooling systems. And the report calls for aging boilers and burners in industrial plans to be replaced with newer and more efficient versions.

The technology to make the changes already exists, the report said, but it will take a host of more aggressive incentives to prod residents and business owners into action.

And Brown said regional leaders have not yet show the "visionary investment" such as tax breaks and subsidies that other parts of the country have enjoyed.

Environmental advocates are already using the report's findings to push for those changes. A group met with utility executives a few weeks ago to discuss the study, and they have since fanned out to meet with lawmakers and regulatory agencies.

Ben Taube, the executive director of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, said he is planning to discuss the report with business leaders and legislators at a conference in Georgia on Wednesday.

The challenge, though, will be proving that policy encouraging more efficiency can pay economic dividends, he said.

"What we have to overcome is how does energy efficiency compete?" Taube said. "We need to focus on how to encourage a utility to invest into energy efficiency and also recoup the cost and even turn a profit."

Ga. Tech study touts energy efficiency

Atlanta Business Chronicle, Aug 25, 2009, by Dave Williams

Aggressive development of economically viable energy efficient technologies throughout the region could reduce energy consumption in 2020 by 9 percent below projected levels, according to a study released by the School of Public Policy at Tech’s Ivan Allen College.

That would bring energy use down to slightly less than present levels, thus avoiding the need to build additional electric generating capacity, including coal-burning plants, said Marilyn Brown, the report’s coauthor.

“Too often, debates on new plant construction focus on cost-effectiveness and health impacts, while ignoring the benefits that could occur by rethinking policies on the demand side of the equation,” she said. “This study … reminds us that the cleanest, most cost-effective power plant is the one that need not be built.”

The study found that the South accounts for 44 percent of the nation’s energy consumption, considerably more than the region’s population share of 37 percent.

“The South has been one of the last regions in the country to embrace energy efficiency programs and to develop an energy-efficiency culture of consumer behavior,” the report states.

The research, which combined results from 19 studies conducted across the South during the past dozen years, was funded by the Energy Foundation and the Turner Foundation.

Gov. Pat Quinn boosts environment law after Chicago Tribune reports of contaminated water in Crestwood

Critic calls for governor to fire state EPA leader

But Quinn was criticized by his rival for the Democratic nomination for governor, Comptroller Dan Hynes, who urged the firing of Doug Scott, director of the state's Environmental Protection Agency, in the wake of a Tribune investigation that showed politics may have gotten in the way of efforts to go after polluters.

The Tribune disclosed in April that water from a polluted community well in Crestwood, home to about 11,000 people, had provided up to 20 percent of the village's water supply. Federal agents have launched a criminal investigation into Crestwood's actions.

The new law requires suppliers such as Crestwood to keep water records for 10 years. Now residents will be notified whenever the EPA refers concerns about a community's water supply to Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, if the EPA acts to seal a water supply or if the EPA finds a threat of contamination, Scott said. Before this law, the EPA only had to notify water supply owners and operators of contamination.

Operators will be required to notify customers within five days of learning about a potential contamination from the state. The EPA also plans to test community water supplies statewide instead of testing only suppliers. Scott acknowledged that includes more than 1,000 communities, but he said the communities will shoulder the cost and testing responsibility.

"We would like to think that these types of laws are not needed," Madigan said.

But Crestwood deceived everyone from state officials to residents who have brushed their teeth and cooked with contaminated water, she said.

Crestwood officials have insisted their drinking water is safe.

A Tribune investigation in Sunday's editions sparked the call by Hynes for the removal of Scott, a former lawmaker and Rockford mayor. The investigation found that the EPA dramatically reduced referrals of violations for enforcement to the attorney general's office in 2005, after Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration was being investigated by Madigan for trading jobs and contracts for campaign funds.

Hynes contended that Quinn, a former lieutenant governor, has done little to rid his administration of holdovers from his predecessor.

"Today's article reminds us all that the Blagojevich culture of politically driven decisions still has a foothold in Pat Quinn's administration, and Illinois families are the clear victim," Hynes said in a statement. "I am calling on the governor immediately to dismiss Doug Scott."

Scott disputed the Tribune report and said he "absolutely" didn't think politics impeded protecting the environment and the public. He contended several details were "factually wrong" in the Tribune report.

Quinn aides pointed to the governor's supportive comments of Scott at the bill-signing ceremony prior to Hynes' criticism.

"Doug's been a good friend of mine," Quinn said. "I worked with him as lieutenant governor and governor on this mission ... to make sure that we have a healthful environment for every person in Illinois."