EFFICIENCY GAINS

Energy efficiency doesn’t elicit a lot of excitement, but ensuring that appliances and other equipment use as little electricity as possible is becoming increasingly important. So, the Department of Energy’s recent agreement to belatedly set efficiency standards for nearly two dozen common appliances is a positive step.

Fifteen states, including Maine, sued the department last year for failing to set tougher energy efficiency requirements for appliances, including air conditioners, furnaces, dishwashers and water heaters. Congress began in the 1980s to set deadlines for the Energy Department to set and update efficiency standards, which are meant to save electricity, natural gas and oil. Some standards are more than a decade overdue and no new ones have been adopted since 2001.

Given new concerns over energy supplies and prices, the belated standards are even more important now. According to the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, adopting standards for just three of the high-priority items would reduce electricity use by more than 1 percent a year. Standards already in place have reduced electricity usage by 8 percent and will avert the need to build 90 new large power plants across the country by 2015.

Faced with nearly certain defeat in court, the department has agreed to set standards, which will take effect beginning in 2007 and be complete for all the devices by 2011. The department estimates new standards will save a year and a half’s worth of electricity over 30 years. As important as finally setting standards, however, is ensuring they are stringent. The department’s recent standards for residential furnaces and boilers are cause for concern.

The standards released last month are meaningless because nearly all furnaces sold today already meet them. The department acknowledged this shortcoming by encouraging states to develop their own standards. The problem with state standards is that they create a patchwork of rules that can be difficult for manufacturers to follow.

Regional standards may fill the gap. In New England, for example, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island have already adopted the same standard for furnaces. In Maine last year, an appliance efficiency standards bill failed in the Legislature. Supporters of the bill said it would have saved a minimum of $16 million a year by 2010. Rather than setting state-specific standards, it makes sense to work with other states to develop a regional rule.

Ensuring widely used household appliances are energy-efficient will save consumers money, help ease the growth in energy demand and reduce pollution. They were a good idea when Congress mandated them and remain so today.