Efficiency forming the core of state’s approach
The state Senate last week approved bills that address skyrocketing energy costs and expected future shortages by creating a state energy resources office, setting guidelines for the location and financing of renewable-energy projects, and expanding energy assistance for the poor.
The measures are part of a four-bill package developed after an energy “summit” sponsored by the Senate last fall that included the utilities, environmental advocates, energy consumers, policy-makers and other groups. They were approved Wednesday and sent to the House for consideration.
The fourth bill, to require utilities to meet electrical energy needs “in a manner that is optimally cost-effective, reliable, prudent and environmentally responsible,” was passed separately by the Senate on Thursday.
Separately, both the House and the Senate have now passed the Energy and Consumer Savings Act of 2006, which sets minimum energy standards for new sales of several common commercial and household appliances, including household boilers and furnaces.
Sponsored by two Cranston Democrats, Sen. Elizabeth H. Roberts and Rep. Arthur Handy, the measure could save consumers more than $100 million and reduce Rhode Island’s annual energy consumption by the equivalent of the use of 9,300 households by 2020, supporters say.
According to the R.I. Public Interest Research Group (RIPIRG), the resulting reduction in pollution, by 2020, would be the equivalent of removing 13,500 cars from the road.
“It’s amazing how much savings can be realized from little changes that consumers probably will never even notice, except for the lower totals of their electricity bills,” Roberts said in a news release. “This legislation affects only five products, but when you consider how many of those products are used and how often they’re used … the efficiency really adds up.”
The measure, which still requires approval of the House or Senate version by the other chamber, would set energy efficiency standards for residential boilers and furnaces, bottle-type water dispensers, walk-in refrigerators and freezers, commercial hot food holding cabinets and incandescent reflector lamps, such as those used in recessed can light fixtures.
The legislation builds on the Energy and Consumer Savings Act of 2005, which imposed energy-efficiency standards on 13 electronic devices and appliances ranging from cell phone chargers and torchière lamps to exit signs and commercial refrigerators.
“This bill adds a lot of savings to the progress we made last year,” said Handy, who sponsored last year’s measure along with Roberts. “Some of the items on this year’s bill, like walk-in refrigerators and freezers, are huge energy consumers with a lot of potential for waste. Others, like residential furnaces, are in thousands of homes.”
Energy-efficient models of the affected products are being manufactured, the legislators said, but the bill is necessary to demand that such products be sold in Rhode Island, and to keep inefficient models out of stores.
The measure has been backed by RIPIRG, The Energy Council of Rhode Island (TEC-RI), the R.I. State Energy Office, National Grid, People’s Power & Light, Clean Water Action and other groups.
“Energy efficiency is the quickest, smartest and cheapest way for Rhode Island to cut energy costs and reduce pollution from power plants,” said Matt Auten, advocate for RIPIRG. “These appliance-efficiency bills are a win-win for energy consumers and the environment.”
John Farley, executive director of TEC-RI, an alliance of the state’s largest energy consumers, such as colleges, hospitals and manufacturers, said his group’s top priority this year is passage of the Senate package, which deals with “bigger-picture energy policy” and could make a big difference in how Rhode Island gets its energy.
(Auten said the measures “should dramatically improve efficiency for procurement, and that obviously helps consumers.”)
But the package passed by the Senate, even if it’s promptly approved by the House, takes a longer view of the issue, Farley noted, and the procurement bill may need “a significant boost” to get through the House this year.
Meanwhile, demand for electricity keeps rising in New England, Farley said, to the point that it’s “creeping very close to our current supply so that it threatens reliability.” The region’s heavy reliance on natural gas to generate electricity has led to fast-rising prices, and “just about every supply effort” – from liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to wind farms – has faced strong opposition.
“As a result, there’s no real easy short-term answers to our energy problem in New England,” Farley said. “The bottom line is, for the next three or five years, really the only option we have is to use the energy supply more efficiently.”
In that context, energy-efficiency standards are “very important,” Farley said. “What it does, in effect, is it frees up some supply by reducing consumption, and it does so in a way that is minimally disruptive to the market. So we think it’s a good, sensible way to go.”
