Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Establishing a New Goal for Energy Efficiency Standards
:
In
President Obama's first term, the Department of Energy established
new minimum efficiency standards for dishwashers, refrigerators, and
many other products. Through 2030, these standards will cut
consumers' electricity bills by hundreds of billions of dollars and save
enough electricity to power more than 85 million homes for two
years. To build on this success, the Administration is setting a new
goal: Efficiency standards for appliances and federal buildings set in
the first and second terms combined will reduce carbon pollution by at
least 3 billion metric tons cumulatively by 2030 - equivalent to nearly
one-half of the carbon pollution from the entire U.S. energy sector for
one year - while continuing to cut families' energy bills.
Reducing Barriers to Investment in Energy Efficiency
:
Energy
efficiency upgrades bring significant cost savings, but upfront costs
act as a barrier to more widespread investment. In response, the
Administration is committing to a number of new executive actions.
As soon as this fall, the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities
Service will finalize a proposed update to its Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Loan Program to provide up to $250 million for rural
utilities to finance efficiency investments by businesses and
homeowners across rural America. The Department is also
streamlining its Rural Energy for America program to provide grants
and loan guarantees directly to agricultural producers and rural small
businesses for energy efficiency and renewable energy systems.
In addition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's
efforts include a $23 million Multifamily Energy Innovation Fund
designed to enable affordable housing providers, technology firms,
academic institutions, and philanthropic organizations to test new
approaches to deliver cost-effective residential energy. In order to
advance ongoing efforts and bring stakeholders together, the Federal
Housing Administration will convene representatives of the lending
community and other key stakeholders for a mortgage roundtable in
July to identify options for factoring energy efficiency into the
mortgage underwriting and appraisal process upon sale or refinancing
of new or existing homes.
Expanding the President's Better Buildings Challenge
:
The Better
Buildings Challenge, focused on helping American commercial and
industrial buildings become at least 20 percent more energy efficient
by 2020, is already showing results. More than 120 diverse
