Texas Ranks 23rd in Energy Efficiency

Media Contacts

AUSTIN – A new report released today by the American Council on an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) ranks Texas 23rd in the nation for programs to promote energy efficiency, a drop from the previous year’s rank of 19th.  Environment Texas seized on the findings to call on the state of Texas to increase investment in energy efficiency.

“Energy efficiency is the cheapest, fastest and cleanest thing we can do to start solving our energy problems,” said Environment Texas Director Luke Metzger. “By using existing technology to make our homes and appliances more efficient, we can save money and help protect the environment.”  

While Texas dropped in the overall rankings, which evaluates six areas including state performance on transportation, building codes and state government initiatives, Texas improved on utility spending on energy efficiency. In 1999, Texas became the first state in the nation to establish an energy efficiency resource standard, “requiring electric utilities to offset 10% of load growth through end-use energy efficiency”. The program requires electric utilities to reduce energy use through programs such as home energy audits and weatherization programs, switching out incandescent lighting for energy efficient compact fluorescents, providing rebates to consumers to replace old appliances with new energy efficient appliances, and providing incentives for manufacturers to replace inefficient equipment with more efficient technologies.

The law was so successful that, in 2007, the Texas Legislature passed HB 3693 by then-Rep. Joe Straus, doubling the mandate on utilities to 20% of load growth by 2010. The law also directed the Public Utility Commission to study whether increasing the program to 50% of load growth is technically possible. In a December 2008 report, the PUC found vast potential for energy efficiency in Texas which, if tapped, could save Texans as much $11.9 billion on their electric bills.

In the 2009 legislative session, the House and Senate approved SB 546 to boost efficiency programs, but the bill ultimately died when a conference committee failed to reconcile differences between the two versions of the bill. However, on July 2, PUC Commissioners Barry Smitherman and Ken Anderson announced the PUC would look at increasing the standards administratively. The PUC is currently soliciting input towards a potential rule change.  ACEEE finds that in 2007, Texas utilities spent $79.5 million on energy efficiency programs, or 0.09% of total utility revenues. SB 546 would have boosted spending to up to $240 million per year by 2016.

“Energy efficiency programs have been enormously successful in Texas, but we’ve barely scratched the surface of our potential,” said Metzger. “If we’re serious about saving energy, saving money and cleaning up our air, energy efficiency is hands down the smartest thing we can do.”

Environment Texas also called on Comptroller Combs and the State Energy Conservation Office to follow the recommendation of Texas A&M’s Energy Systems Lab and adopt the latest energy efficiency standards for new homes, known as the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code. The code would require new homes to be approximately 15% more energy efficient than currently required.