Touting the potential for large energy savings at relatively low costs, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) unveiled a research report Wednesday that concludes 20-30% reductions in energy consumption are possible nationally from an aggressive national energy efficiency policy. CFA Research Director Mark Cooper concluded that aggressive efficiency programs can “ensure an affordable energy future.”

Cooper’s report was a joint effort between CFA and the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council. They said the report has significance for Virginia and more widely nationally where half of the 50 states now have some policy pushing energy efficiency measures for homes and businesses.

Cooper said he reached his conclusions based on “a comprehensive analysis of existing studies” that have analyzed the potential cost savings from aggressive state policies pushing energy efficiency. “The report uses the result of this analysis to project the average annual savings for households for each state if energy consumption is decreased through strong federal and state efficiency policies.”

“This document is not about a national energy resource efficiency standard or a building code or appliances standards or retrofits,” Cooper said. “It is about the general proposition now documented in more than two dozen studies that efficiency is cheap, plentiful and all we need to do is make the necessary investments. Frankly, it take both state and federal policies aggressively pursuing the whole portfolio if we are going to get to a 30% target [for overall energy reductions].”

All of the involved national institutions have confirmed that the 30% cut in energy use across the board is achievable, said Cooper, who was joined by David Asplund, CEO at Lime Energy Co., an energy efficiency engineering consulting firm; and Kurk Shickman, research director for the Energy Future Coalition, both of which helped unveil the report.

Noting that it is widely accepted that it is cheaper to save energy than to produce and consume it, Cooper said all the major organizations that have looked at the issue agree that efficiency costs about one-third of what is required in building a power plant.

Cooper said the alternative energy space is “very crowded” right now, so as the politics on various proposals unfold special interests arise and there can be organized opposition, but for the most part energy efficiency is nonpartisan — all it needs is to get “the right attention” among policymakers.

CFA said the detailed state-by-state savings “show efficiency can create jobs, reduce energy waste and reduce the overall cost of climate and energy legislation for consumers.”

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