Contact: Ben Somberg, 202-658-8129, bsomberg@aceee.org
Washington, DC—A recent package of proposals from the Department of Energy (DOE) to roll back efficiency standards for numerous products would cost households and businesses nearly five times as much as it would save them, according to an analysis today from the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP).
The DOE said last week that the series of rollbacks would save Americans $11 billion. Yet the department’s own previous analyses show that eliminating those same standards would also cost households and businesses more than $54 billion from increased utility bills. That means the repeals would have a net cost of $43 billion.
“The costs of rolling these things back dwarf the benefits,” said Andrew deLaski, ASAP executive director. “You’d have to be silly to completely ignore one side of the ledger, but that’s what the administration would like you to do.”
Each DOE proposal would either revert a product standard to the minimum efficiency levels originally set in statute (often decades ago) or eliminate standards entirely where there are none set in law. In all cases, the current standard saves consumers or businesses far more than it costs, according to DOE’s own data.
In one example of the product standards at issue, rolling back efficiency standards for air cleaners (also known as air purifiers) would save purchasers $500 million—but cost them $14.1 billion in extra energy bills.
More information about the proposed rollbacks is available in a May 12 ASAP press release.
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