Massachusetts enacts efficiency standards legislation
On November 22, 2005 Governor Mitt Romney signed an energy efficiency standards bill into law, making Massachusetts the tenth state to have enacted such legislation. Notably, the Massachusetts law is the first to pass since the U.S. Congress established the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) last summer.
Many of the 16 product efficiency standards set in EPAct 2005 were a result of standards efforts at the state level, particularly in the Northeast and Western U.S. Upon the adoption of EPAct 2005, states were preempted from adopting any of the standards set in the federal law. However, establishing standards on products untouched by EPAct 2005 will allow states to greatly enhance their energy savings. Massachusetts was the first state to take advantage of this opportunity by including six efficiency standards in its legislation: incandescent reflector lamps, metal halide lamp fixtures, external power supplies, medium voltage dry-type transformers, residential furnaces and boilers and furnace fans. Full implementation of this legislation would decrease electricity consumption in Massachusetts by 700,000 megawatt-hours per year equivalent to the electricity use of 100,000 households. Natural gas and heating oil consumption would drop by 2,000,000 million BTUs or about the same amount used by 25,000 households. This would translate into economic benefits of about $850 million for the state.
Although many of the standards included in the Massachusetts law have been adopted in other states, Massachusetts is the first to attempt to set standards for residential furnaces and boilers and furnace fans. In earlier federal legislation, Congress set standards for these items and preempted states from doing so on their own. However, despite major technological improvements and a Congressional mandate to update the standard, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has failed to act and has missed its deadline for updating the standard by 10 years. In addition, if the DOE does update these standards, it is unlikely that it will set efficiency levels significant enough to reduce energy consumption in the Northeast. Faced with record high natural gas and heating oil prices, Massachusetts decided to adopt cost-effective standards on furnaces and boilers and will now be required to petition the DOE for a waiver from preemption. To underscore the seriousness of its intentions, Governor Romney emphasized at the signing ceremony, the state's willingness and dedication to pursue such a waiver.
The adoption of residential furnace and boiler standards by Massachusetts is also important to the regional effort. In 2005, several states introduced but did not pass these standards, including: Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont as well as Massachusetts. Now that Massachusetts has acted, other states will likely also move on this issue, increasing pressure on the DOE to both act quickly and set strong federal efficiency standards.
The effort to establish efficiency standards in Massachusetts (in the face of opposition from state business groups such as the Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts) was a success due to the coordinated efforts of several organizations including: MassPIRG, the National Consumer Law Center, the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, National Grid and KeySpan. The Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources, while not a part of the campaign, provided invaluable help and support during the effort.
For more information about The Northeast Energy Efficiency Standards Project, please contact Isaac Elnecave, Standards Project Manager at 781-860-9177, ext. 23 or ielnecave@neep.org.
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