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Researchers: Subsidizing Efficiency Helps Meet GHG Goals
Maryland could reap economic and environmental benefits from helping its citizens improve home heating efficiency while reducing their consumption of natural gas, a University of Maryland study commissioned by the state’s Department of the Environment has found.
The university’s Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER), projects that state assistance to residents for the purchase of energy-efficient natural gas furnaces and water heaters, and insulation upgrades would result in:
Additionally, reducing natural gas consumption would help Maryland meet its 2020 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets, cutting residential emissions by more than 10 million tons over the next decade, or about 9%, the researchers said.
“You might call this ‘cash-for-clunkers’ home-style,” said principal investigator, Matthias Ruth, CIER director and Roy F. Weston, chair for natural economics at the university.
“As a result of investments in energy efficiency, the average Maryland single- and multifamily household will accumulate benefits in terms of reduced natural gas consumption, which will lead to energy bill savings,” the study said. “As a result of decreasing energy consumption, the state will realize reductions in CO2 emissions, which will help the state meet its CO2 reduction goals.”
Approximately 46% of households in Maryland use natural gas, with 68% of total consumption coming from space heating, 23% from water heating and 8% from other uses such as cooking, the researchers said, citing government statistics.
The Maryland Department of the Environment commissioned the study in 2007, in part, to help it decide how to invest anticipated revenues produced by Maryland’s participation the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
“This study is important because it shows just how beneficial investing in consumer energy efficiencies can be,” Ruth said. “There are a lot more consumers than energy producers and that’s where we can realize the greatest environmental and economic benefits.
“Though our research looked solely at conditions in Maryland, I wouldn’t be surprised to find similar benefits in some other states where a large portion of household heating needs are met by natural gas.”
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