Alliance to Save Energy unveils policy proposals for Biden administration, Congress

The Alliance to Save Energy outlined proposals it would like the Biden administration and Congress to consider to boost energy efficiency, create jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help consumers and businesses lower their energy bills.

The Alliance’s 2021 policy agenda includes items that the Biden administration can accomplish unilaterally through administrative actions, as well as legislative proposals for expanding investments, tax incentives, and other initiatives.

“Energy efficiency is the cornerstone of a sustainable and equitable energy economy, but Washington needs to be doing a lot more to prioritize and push it into the market,” Alliance President Paula Glover said. “The policies outlined in this agenda would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, save consumers tens of billions of dollars on energy bills, and sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We’re calling on President-elect Biden and the new Congress to prioritize these policies as a foundation of economic stimulus.”

The proposals include doubling the Energy Star program, increasing funding for weatherization assistance for low-income households, expanding tax incentives for homeowner efficiency improvements, leveraging federal funding to retrofit critical public buildings, creating a new small business efficiency grant program, and boosting investments encouraging electric vehicles and other transportation improvements.

“We need to put people back to work and invigorate our economy, but we also need to address the climate crisis. And when looking at solutions for both challenges, it’s hard to beat energy efficiency,” Glover added. “This sector employs more than two million Americans, mostly in construction and manufacturing. It’s the workhorse of the clean energy economy, and as we struggle to rebuild from the pandemic, we have an enormous opportunity for growth if we put the right policies in place.”

The Alliance to Save Energy is a nonprofit alliance of business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders with a mission to promote energy productivity to achieve a stronger economy, a cleaner environment, and better energy security, affordability, and reliability.

“In addition to the specific proposals outlined in this agenda that Congress and the administration can address in the early months of 2021, we are eager to work with lawmakers in a bipartisan way to develop economy-wide carbon policy that recognizes the devastating cost of climate change and appropriately values the benefits of energy efficiency as the most cost-effective solution we have,” Glover said. “That includes ensuring that the disadvantaged communities most impacted by energy and environmental inequities have unobstructed access to efficiency’s benefits.”

Glover said the Alliance is also working with stakeholders to accelerate the digital transformation taking place in the sector to help businesses, consumers, and utilities optimize energy use.