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As our economy sputters, utility bills soar, the
number of home foreclosures skyrockets, and pollution builds,
wouldn’t it be great to have a solution that addressed all these
problems at once, one that didn’t require higher taxes or a greater
burden on Illinois’s stretched budget? Although it may not sound sexy, increased energy
efficiency is that solution. By simply making better use of energy we
already generate, Illinois families can save hundreds annually in utility
bills, lower the monthly costs of home ownership, and help curb the harmful
effects of pollution from Illinois power plants. The benefits are remarkable. According to the recent
Environment Illinois report The Power of
Efficiency: Opportunities to Save Money, Reduce Pollution, and Expand the
Economy in the Midwest, simply requiring new residential
furnaces to be 20 percent more efficient in Illinois would, by 2020, save
1,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity and 14 billion cubic feet of natural
gas annually — enough to supply more than 100,000 homes. A recent
study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy found that new Illinois
homes built under the latest national energy-efficiency model code save
homeowners as much as $466 annually in utility bills over current practice.
The economic benefits continue to grow as demand
declines and saving energy leads to lower energy prices. For example, if
Midwestern states reduced their consumption of natural gas by 1 percent per
year for five years through increased energy efficiency, wholesale natural
gas prices would decline by as much as 13 percent. Lower utility bills mean more disposable income for
Illinois families, providing an economic stimulus that doesn’t
submarine our state or federal budgets. That’s also a relief to
homeowners struggling to meet the monthly costs of owning a new home
(remember, foreclosures occur because families can’t make monthly
payments, not down payments). Increased energy efficiency decreases the strain on
Illinois power plants, helping curb the soot, mercury, smog, and
global-warming pollution created when coal is burned for fuel. Researchers
at the University of Illinois predict that reducing forecast electricity
consumption by 16 percent in Illinois by 2020 would reduce carbon dioxide
emissions by 33 million tons per year in 2020. That’s progress. Unfortunately, Illinois lags behind other states in
getting the most out of the energy we already produce. Illinois is one of
just a handful of states without statewide energy-efficient residential
building codes, meaning that many new homes waste energy, resulting in
excessive utility bills for homeowners. As a result, whereas 57 percent of
new Iowa homes constructed in 2006 are built to Energy Star specifications
(15 percent above the model code), that rate is an embarrassing 3 percent
in Illinois. We must do better. Legislation before the Illinois General Assembly
would make it easier for Illinois families to build and maintain
energy-efficient homes. This bill — the Energy Efficient Building Act
(HB 1842) — adopts the latest International Energy Conservation Code
residential standards for new-home construction. Supported by financial
institutions (ShoreBank), affordable-housing groups (Housing Action
Illinois, Illinois Housing Council), environmental groups (the
Environmental Law and Policy Center, Environment Illinois), and the city of Chicago, this
legislation may not solve global warming or cure our economic struggles
altogether, but it is an important first step. Beyond legislative solutions, Illinois families and
businesses can take steps on their own. If every Illinois household
replaced five conventional bulbs with compact fluorescent lights, the
annual global-warming pollution prevented would be equivalent to that
prevented by removing 110,000 cars from the road. According to Harvard
researchers, simply retrofitting existing homes with improved insulation
would reduce pollution sufficiently to prevent 240 premature deaths and
6,500 asthma attacks across the United States. The resulting national
health-care savings alone could total $1.3 billion per year — yet
another way in which increased energy efficiency benefits our economy. Clean energy and renewable energy are indispensable
components of any new energy future, and we must continue to expand their
development. But significant opportunities also exist to maximize the
potential of energy we already create. For the sake of our environment and
our economy, we cannot keep letting these opportunities slip away.
Brian P. Granahan is a staff attorney with
Environment Illinois; Mattie Hunter is Democratic member of the Illinois
Senate.
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2008.
