SUNNY OUTLOOK

With gas prices at record highs and concerns about energy supplies growing daily, lawmakers should get to work on crafting energy efficiency standards for appliances and to boost fuel efficiency standards for cars. So what is Congress eager to do? Tinker with the clock.

Last week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce unanimously passed an amendment to the energy bill from Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey that would extend daylight-saving time by two months. Under his amendment, daylight-saving time would extend from the first Sunday in March to the last Sunday in November.

“With oil at $57 a barrel and gas at $2.45 a gallon for regular in Michigan, we must take advantage of every opportunity to conserve energy. The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use,” said Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who co-sponsored the amendment. “It is that simple.”

Not really.

First, it is not clear that changing the clocks will save energy. It will be light longer in the evening, meaning that people won’t have to have their lights on at home and may remain outside so air conditioners would get a little less use. However, it will get light later in the morning, so more lights would be turned on then.

Testifying about Rep. Markey’s bill, the Department of Transportation cited studies from the 1970s that concluded that extending daylight-saving time might result in electricity savings of 1 percent in March and April. This, the department said, is equivalent to saving 100,000 barrels of oil daily for two months, although few power plants in the United States are fired by oil.

Rep. Upton, however, is right that the federal government should take advantage of every opportunity to conserve energy. That’s why Congress should pass higher vehicle fuel efficiency standards supported by Maine’s senators. While Congress continually fails to pass higher standards, fuel efficiency was the hot topic at the 100th annual Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit. A record 600 papers on the subject were presented at the meeting.

Congress should support higher efficiency standards for appliances as well, not try to undermine state efforts to do so in the absence of federal action. But in the House an amendment to the energy bill to quash state standards for ceiling fans, something vehemently opposed by Maine Rep. Tom Allen, was quickly passed 29-17 by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Markey, by the way, also supports better efficiency standards.

Lawmakers in Augusta have begun considering setting state standards for a wide variety of consumer and commercial appliances.

The Department of Energy is as much as a decade behind schedule in setting efficiency standards for 21 devices. In 2001, the department said developments of new standards for residential furnaces and boilers, commercial air conditioners and distribution transformers were “high priorities.” Since then, DOE has repeatedly missed self-imposed deadlines for advancing new standards.

According to the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, adopting standards for just the three high-priority items would reduce electricity use by more than 1 percent year-round, not just in March and April.

Extending daylight-saving time may lead to more family barbecues and ballgames. It won’t begin to solve American’s energy problems.