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 dysviz rated 10 months ago - From the page: "A coalition of consumer, energy and environmental organizations sharply criticized the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for extraordinarily weak home furnace and boiler energy efficiency standards announced today. Not only are the standards announced today little changed from th...
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- dysviz rated 10 months ago
- From the page: "A coalition of consumer, energy and environmental organizations sharply criticized the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for extraordinarily weak home furnace and boiler energy efficiency standards announced today. Not only are the standards announced today little changed from the original levels set by Congress twenty years ago, but also 99% of natural gas furnaces currently sold already meet the new minimum efficiency level.
DOE has delivered a turkey of an efficiency rule, said Andrew deLaski, Executive Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project. This Thanksgiving, that's bitter news for Americans who care about global warming, high energy prices and our dependence on overseas energy.
The standard issued today just increases the minimum gas furnace efficiency level to 80% from the current level of 78%. Today's rule also modestly increases the standards for oil furnaces and oil and gas boilers, which, on a national basis, are far less common than gas furnaces (see table below).
This standard is grossly inadequate" a 90% natural gas furnace efficiency standard would provide more than seventeen times the carbon savings, said David B. Goldstein, Energy Program Co-Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Goldstein noted that recently both the head of the Presidentâ€s Council on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton, and Secretary of State Rice have highlighted appliance standards as one of best ways to cut global warming emissions. Today's decision makes it all too clear that the Energy Department attaches zero value to cutting global warming emissions said Goldstein.
According to DOE, very large energy, economic and CO2 emission savings could have been achieved by setting a 90% national standard for gas furnaces or by applying a 90% standard to just the northern region of the country. DOE found that a national 90% standard would save 3.21 quadrillion Btus of energy over 24 years, or enough to heat four out of every five U.S. homes for one year and would net about $11 billion in consumer savings. The higher standard would cut global warming pollution by 141 million metric tons over 24 years â€" roughly the amount emitted by 25 million cars driven 12,000 miles each â€" in contrast to just 8 million tons of reduction from the DOE rule.
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