Yesterday, Rep. Anchia, with the support of Rep. Dennis Bonnen, amended SB 12 (a clean air funding bill) to set minimum efficiency standards for nine consumer products including DVD players, office water coolers and pool pumps (thanks to all the Environment Texas members who contacted their rep in support of this measure!). The electricity savings from this amendment are huge - enough to offset 514 megawatts of peak demand (that's a pretty big coal-fired power plant we won't need thanks to this standard).

According to a study by the State Energy Conservation Office, the standards will save consumers almost $200 million per year starting in 2020 (it take a few years for the program to fully ramp up, so we'll also get some savings in the meantime). It will also reduce smog pollution by 858 metric tons and global warming pollution by 1.4 million metric tons (that's like taking 259,961 cars off Texas roads). And since power plants use a ton of water, reducing all this electricity will also save Texas more than one billion gallons of water every year.

SB 12 still needs to pass on third reading in the House (the appliance manufacturers may still try to monkey with the bill) and then it's on to a House/Senate conference committee. The bill's author, Sen. Averitt, originally had the appliance standards in the bill, but then stripped them out under pressure from the Texas Association of Business. Hopefully he'll have a change of heart and keep the standards in this time around.