Global Climate Change: The Role for Energy Efficiency (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Feb. 3, 2000 |
| Report Number |
RL30414 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Fred Sissine, Resources, Science, and Industry Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Increased energy efficiency is generally thought to be the primary way to reduce the nation's
growth
in CO2 emissions. As result, it occupies a prominent role in proposals to curb future emissions. The
Clinton Administration's 1993 Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) sought to stabilize year 2000
emissions at the 1990 level. Global recognition that year 2000 stabilization would not be achieved
led to the 1997 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change third conference of
parties (COP-3) in Kyoto, Japan, where new emission reduction targets were proposed for 2008-
2012. Subsequently, the Clinton Administration's Climate Change Technology Initiative (CCTI)
proposed increased energy efficiency research and development spending, tax credits, and other
policies to promote energy efficiency to curb emissions.
A debate has emerged over estimates of the potential for energy efficiency to further slow the
growth of CO2 emissions. The Department of Energy issued a report by five national laboratories
entitled Scenarios of U.S. Carbon Reductions: Potential Impacts of Energy Technologies by
2010
and Beyond . Also known as the Five-Lab Study , it projects that energy efficiency
technology
combined with a permit price of $50 per ton of carbon could bring 2010 emissions to a level just
below the 1990 stabilization level. The Five-Lab Study projects that energy efficiency
could account
for 50% to 90% of the projected emissions reduction in 2010. This contribution would be achieved
through an interaction between higher energy costs due to carbon permit prices that range up to
$50/ton of carbon and a choice of response options that include substitution of lower carbon fuels
and promotion of more energy efficient equipment.
However, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued a critique of the Five-Lab
Study
entitled Impacts of the Kyoto Protocol on U.S. Energy Markets and Economic Activity .
EIA finds
problems with key DOE assumptions about new energy-efficient technologies, which include "...
increased performance and lower costs for new technologies, new [unspecified] government policies
that promote adoption into the market, and a greater propensity by consumers to buy them than they
have shown in the past." EIA further criticizes the Five-Lab Study for assuming an
aggressive R&D
program and a 1.9% annual economic growth rate, which is 10% lower than EIA's assumption of
a 2.2% rate. Moreover, EIA says the Five-Lab Study end-use models likely include
some double
counting of emission reductions.
Also, there is a debate over the analysis of actual CO2 emission reductions from past energy
efficiency measures. In this case, methodological issues are at the core of disagreements between
the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about the
best way to assess emission savings from EPA's various energy efficiency programs.
Federal efforts to curb global climate change through increased energy efficiency may be
affected by a number of issues being debated by Congress, including program appropriations, new
tax incentives, and legislation on electricity restructuring.
