As member-owned utilities, electric cooperatives have a track record of investing in energy efficiency to help our consumer-members lower their electricity bills. The efficiency standards for appliances, light bulbs and manufactured housing included in the “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007” will help cooperative members reduce their electricity consumption and decrease the amount of expensive new generation that electric cooperatives need to build to meeting rising demand.

More than 13 percent of co-op members across the country – and as many as two-thirds of residential consumers at some rural electric systems – reside in factory-built housing. Inefficiencies in these houses lead to high electric bills in both winter and summer for those who can least afford it.

The bill is a prudent first step towards reducing future demand growth for electric power and energy. And the bill is consistent with the growing consensus in support of increasing energy efficiency as one key approach to reducing carbon emissions from power generation. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a technology research group based in Palo Alto, Calif., believes that energy efficiency technologies could reduce demand growth from 1.5 percent annually to 1.1 percent.

The new Act’s provisions to promote high performance commercial and federal buildings, as well as other conservation measures, will significantly reduce the demand-growth curve.

In addition, EPRI, MIT and others have called for robust research and development to make carbon capture and sequestration viable on a commercial scale. Three electric cooperatives are participating in research projects related to CCS. NRECA welcomes additional funding for this research, which will be crucial in accelerating the ability of the electric power industry to curb greenhouse gas emissions.