By 2030, these benefits could increase to more than one million jobs and $832 in annual savings per household — all while reducing government-projected levels of nationwide carbon emissions by 15 percent, or 959 million metric tons.

The new report, Energy Efficiency in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009: Impacts of Current Provisions and Opportunities to Enhance the Legislation, underscores the energy efficiency potential — and accompanying benefits — still available as the Senate considers energy and climate legislation.

In fact, the examined improvements would result in 48 percent more jobs and 32 percent more consumer savings than the 383,800 jobs and $215 in annual household savings in 2020 than the energy efficiency provisions of ACES, the original House bill, would provide.

Click here to see what the ACES could save in your state.

“Energy efficiency may not be as hot a topic as cap-and-trade, but it certainly gets the job done when it comes to saving consumers money and creating jobs,” stated Steven Nadel, ACEEE’s Executive Director and co-author of the report. “As our report shows, the Senate can boost those benefits by improving the energy efficiency provisions of the Waxman-Markey bill.”

Improvements to ACES considered in ACEEE’s analysis are:

• Strengthening the Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS) that sets a 10% energy savings goal for electric utility companies. (ACES includes a 5% EERS with an optional 3% increase.)
• Requiring one-third of the electric utility allowances to be used for energy efficiency improvements as are the natural gas allowances in ACES. 
• Extending the allocation of 9.5% of carbon allowance revenue to the State Energy and Environmental Development (SEED) fund to 2030. (ACES ramps down SEED fund spending beginning in 2016.)

Energy Efficiency in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009: Impacts of Current Provisions and Opportunities to Enhance the Legislation is available for free download or a hard copy can be purchased for $25.