Energy Efficiency

What is Energy Efficiency?

Why is Energy Efficiency Important?

What is ELPC Doing to Advance Energy Efficiency?

What is Energy Efficiency?

Basically, it’s all about doing more with less.  The majority of our homes, businesses and appliances waste a huge amount of electricity because they’re not efficient and don’t use modern, energy-saving technology.  Improving energy efficiency is the best, fastest and cheapest way to meet our energy needs while reducing global warming pollution from power plants.

Why Is Energy Efficiency Important?

Energy production is one of the leading causes of global warming pollution as well as other health and environmental problems.  For far too long, the Midwest – and the U.S. as a whole – has been dependent on dirty fossil fuel energy sources for electricity generation. Reducing the amount of energy we use will reduce the amount of pollution we create.

With skyrocketing energy costs, improvements in energy efficiency – and reductions in energy usage – can not only reduce negative impacts to our environment and to our health, they can save us money! The more efficiently we use energy, the less we pollute and the more money we save. It’s as simple as that.

What is ELPC Doing to Advance Energy Efficiency?

Energy efficiency is a key part of ELPC’s Clean Energy Program.  Using America’s energy more efficiently will improve environmental quality and public health by reducing both the pollution from coal plants and the environmental, public health and safety risks from nuclear plants. Efficiency saves consumers money and is the fastest, cleanest and cheapest way to meet our energy needs.

ELPC’s overall goal is to accomplish a transition from the region’s current resource portfolio, currently comprised almost exclusively of nuclear and older coal-burning plants, toward a more diverse, more sustainable and less polluting portfolio including wind energy, biomass and energy efficiency.

News

ELPC Commends Expert Testimony on Farm Bill Clean Energy Programs Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the US Senate Committee on Agriculture heard testimony from a number of expert witnesses in support of clean energy programs in the Farm Bill. Witnesses and Senators alike praised the programs’ positive job creation, environmental protection and rural economic development benefits.

“We commend the experts and Senators who took a stand for homegrown clean energy today,” says Andy Olsen, Senior Policy Advocate at the Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC), a long-time champion of the Farm Bill’s clean energy programs. “Through these programs, America has made unprecedented gains in rural renewable energy and energy efficiency. Congress and the White House should continue this forward momentum.”

Steve Flick, one of the nation’s farm energy entrepreneurs, called for Congressional action to renew and fully fund core Farm Bill clean energy programs, such as the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) and the Biorefinery Assistance Program. “America’s farmers, ranchers and rural residents can have a bright future ahead of them with the right incentives,” Flick says. “Renewable energy is the future of rural America.”

Bennie Hutchins of Mississippi provided numerous examples of how REAP has helped agricultural producers and rural small businesses save money and produce income across the South. He shared ELPC analysis showing that REAP produces jobs at a greater than average rate.

“Farm Bill clean energy programs have been an unprecedented success. They have helped farmers reduce their energy bills and energy waste through energy efficiency and accelerated the introduction of modern clean energy technologies into the marketplace,” Olsen says. “Congress and the White House should continue this momentum by renewing and fully funding core Farm Bill clean energy programs.”