
Evan Jones
Go Solar Associate
New analysis details the environmental importance of the Biden administration’s updated energy efficiency standards
Go Solar Associate
Senior Director, Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, Environment America Research & Policy Center
Reducing wasteful energy consumption and promoting energy efficiency is a necessary step to achieving a transition away from fossil fuels. The less energy we use in the first place, the easier it is to harness renewable energy sources and work towards a future shaped by clean energy. Energy efficiency standards are one key way we can reduce energy waste and reduce pollution.
Under the Biden administration, the Department of Energy has updated energy efficiency standards for more than 20 products. These standards create minimum efficiency requirements for commonplace appliances and equipment, from gas furnaces to dishwashers, preventing the needless waste of energy and ensuring cost-effectiveness.
These updates provide consumer benefits in the form of reduced utility bills and improved product performance. A new report published by PIRG and the Appliance Standards Awareness Project estimates that the new standards will generate more than $2,000 in savings over the next two decades for the average American household. But the benefits extend well beyond consumer savings.
The report estimates these new energy efficiency standards will reduce national annual emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) by about 11,700 tons and 5,100 tons, respectively. Nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide pose potent environmental threats: damaging water and air quality, harming respiratory health, and contributing to acid rain. Both also function as indirect greenhouse gasses through photochemical reactions, destabilizing our atmosphere and worsening climate change.
Improved energy efficiency also helps cut back on water waste. Cummatively, the updated requirements will also save about 1 trillion gallons of water–equivalent to more than 50 million swimming pools–nationwide over the next two decades.
The resulting decrease in energy consumption will translate into significant greenhouse gas reductions and improved electrical grid reliability. The report also estimates accompanied reductions in the pollution of particulate matter that pose acute public health risks, with long-term exposures often leading to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Attempts to undermine energy efficiency standards threaten to jeopardize these environmental benefits. The Department of Energy must continue to deliver on energy efficiency standards in order to combat harmful air pollution, water waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and wasteful energy usage. Transitioning to renewable energy necessitates a hard look at our appliances and their wastefulness–and a commitment to energy efficiency standards that hold producers accountable.
For detailed state-by-state cost-savings, pollution reduction, and water savings information, please view the entire policy analysis.
Go Solar Associate
Evan Jones is the Go Solar Associate for Environment America and Environment America Research & Policy Center. Evan graduated from Duke University with a degree in public policy and is based in Amherst.
Senior Director, Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, Environment America Research & Policy Center
Johanna directs strategy and staff for Environment America's energy campaigns at the local, state and national level. In her prior positions, she led the campaign to ban smoking in all Maryland workplaces, helped stop the construction of a new nuclear reactor on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and helped build the support necessary to pass the EmPOWER Maryland Act, which set a goal of reducing the state’s per capita electricity use by 15 percent. She also currently serves on the board of Community Action Works. Johanna lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her family, where she enjoys growing dahlias, biking and the occasional game of goaltimate.