Alliance to Save Energy
The Alliance to Save Energy is a coalition consisting largely of industrial, technological, and energy corporations. The Alliance states that its mission is to "support energy efficiency as a cost-effective energy resource under existing market conditions and advocate energy-efficiency policies that minimize costs to society and individual consumers, and that lessen greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the global climate." [1] The alliance's chief activities include public relations, research, and lobbying[2] to change U.S. energy policy.
Formation | February 10, 1977 |
---|---|
Headquarters | Washington, DC, USA |
Honorary Chair | Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) |
Co-Chair | Gil Quiniones, President & CEO New York Power authority |
President | Jason Hartke |
Key people | Charles H. Percy (founding chair), Hubert Humphrey (co-founder) |
Website | www |
The creation of the Alliance was announced on February 10, 1977, with the support of the then U.S. President Jimmy Carter.[3] It was the initiative of senators Charles Percy and Hubert Humphrey.
Member organizations
The alliance includes over 170 organizations committed to energy efficiency as a primary way to achieve the nation's environmental, economic, energy security and affordable housing goals.
Support of Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
In 2007, Alliance to Save Energy came out in support of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007,[4][5][6] which phases out the use of inefficient forms of incandescent light bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient lights, such as CFL, halogen incandescents, and LED lights. The purchase price of more efficient lights is typically higher than the purchase price of legacy incandescents. However, the low energy consumption and long life span of high-efficiency lights result in lower life-cycle costs than their legacy incandescent counterparts. Several of the founding member corporations (including Philips, Panasonic, and Sylvania) are manufacturers of high-efficiency bulbs. However, all of these corporations are also manufacturers of the incandescent light bulbs that were phased out of production following passage of the Clean Energy Bill of 2007.
CarbonCount
CarbonCount is a metric developed by the Alliance to Save Energy that quantifies the impact of investments in U.S.-based energy-efficiency and renewable-energy projects given the expected reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from each $1,000 of investment.[7] In 2015, Bloomberg New Energy Finance honored CarbonCount with its Finance for Resilience (FiRE) award.[8] FiRE is an open and action-oriented platform that collects, develops and helps implement powerful ideas to accelerate finance for clean energy, climate, sustainability and green growth. FiRe singles out ideas that have the potential for incremental finance of at least $1bn in clean energy in the first three years of implementation, that are achievable within 1–3 years.[9] Hannon Armstrong's 2015 issuance of Sustainable Yield Bonds secured by a portion of its utility scale solar and wind real estate related assets was the first investment to be certified under the CarbonCount methodology, receiving a CarbonCount score of 0.39 metric tons of CO2 offset per $1000 of investment.[10][11] In 2016, Deutsche Bank received a CarbonCount score of 0.18 metric tons of CO2 offset per $1000 of investment in a portfolio of rooftop solar PV systems.[12]
Legislation
The Alliance to Save Energy supported the bill To require the Secretary of Energy to prepare a report on the impact of thermal insulation on both energy and water use for potable hot water (H.R. 4801; 113th Congress), which would require the United States Secretary of Energy to prepare a report on the effects that thermal insulation has on both energy consumption and systems for providing potable water in federal buildings.[13] They called the bill a step "in the right direction" and saying that they "are hopeful energy efficiency can once again be an area of common ground between parties."[14]
It supported the EPS Service Parts Act of 2014 (H.R. 5057; 113th Congress), a bill that would exempt certain external power supplies from complying with standards set forth in a final rule published by the United States Department of Energy in February 2014.[15][16] The United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce describes the bill as a bill that "provides regulatory relief by making a simple technical correction to the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act to exempt certain power supply (EPS) service and spare parts from federal efficiency standards."[17]
Board of directors
The board includes CEOs, presidents and senior executives of companies, associations, consumer and environmental organizations, as well as officials from state government, universities and law firms.
The first board of directors and board of advisors were chaired by Senator Percy and Henry A. Kissinger, respectively. Honorary chairmen included Senators Daniel J. Evans, H. John Heinz III and Timothy E. Wirth.
The current board is chaired by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and co-chaired by Tom King, President of National Grid USA. Congressional vice-chairs include Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Susan M. Collins (R-ME), Chris Coons (D-DE), Richard Lugar (R–IN), Lisa Murkowski (R–AK), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mark Udall (D–CO). Congressional vice chairs also include Representatives Brian Bilbray (R-CA), Michael Burgess (R–TX), Ralph Hall (R– TX), Steve Israel (D–NY), Edward J. Markey (D–MA), and Paul Tonko (D–NY). Alliance President Kateri Callahan took office on January 1, 2004.
References
- "About Us". Alliance to Save Energy. Archived from the original on 2006-08-10. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
- Lobbying Spending Database: Agencies lobbied for by Alliance to Save Energy, 2001
- Jimmy Carter (February 10, 1977). "Alliance To Save Energy Statement on the Formation of the Organization". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- "Alliance to Save Energy Hails Efficiency-Focused Senate Energy Bill, But Laments Lack of Tax Incentives". Alliance to Save Energy. Archived from the original on 2007-07-06. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- Green Bay Press-Gazette - Congress' energy bill phasing out traditional light bulbs
- Wald, Matthew L. (14 March 2007). "A U.S. Alliance to Update the Light Bulb". The New York Times.
- "CarbonCount™: Quantitative Carbon Scoring System for "Green" Bonds". 2015-03-30. Archived from the original on 2016-07-13. Retrieved 2016-06-24.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2016-06-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- http://www.financeforresilience.com/us/
- https://www.ase.org/news/alliance-issues-inaugural-carboncounttm-certification
- http://investors.hannonarmstrong.com/file.aspx?IID=4376922&FID=31284549
- https://www.ase.org/news/alliance-save-energys-carboncounttm-scoring-tool-brings-transparency-green-bond-market
- "CBO - H.R. 4801". Congressional Budget Office. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- LaFreniere, Kelsey (11 June 2014). "Alliance Vice-Chair Rep. Kinzinger Pushes For Energy Efficiency". Alliance to Save Energy. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
- "CBO - H.R. 5057". Congressional Budget Office. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
- Hankin, Christopher (15 July 2014). "House Energy & Commerce Committee Passes Bipartisan Regulatory Relief for External Power Supplies". Information Technology Industry Council. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
- "Committee to Build on #RecordOfSuccess with Nine Bills On the House Floor This Week". House Energy and Commerce Committee. 8 September 2014. Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2014.